Chapter 14

Conversations

A moment later, the girl Ron had been waiting for slipped through the portrait hole. The red-head smiled broadly and walked over to meet her. Hermione smiled back at him, reaching up to brush some mud off his face before she lifted her face up for his kiss. Cassie smiled to herself as she watched them. She couldn't think of two people more opposite in personality but that didn't seem to matter. They were obviously deeply in love.

They separated after a brief moment and walked over to where Cassie was standing. "How did it go with Professor Dumbledore?"

"It went very well. I'll tell you all about it when we can have some privacy." Cassie wondered where that was. Privacy seemed to be in short supply around here, but she imagined that Hermione had something in mind so she didn't question her. "Anyway, he told me what to have you do about letters home to your parents, so you don't have to worry about that at all."

"Okay. Thanks for checking. I'd like to send that letter home." Hermione and Ron walked away, toward the stairs themselves and Cassie glanced around the common room. Colin was still there and Cassie knew that now was the best time to speak to him, before this went on any longer and got even more complicated. She approached him slowly, a little bit nervous. She still hadn't decided what she was going to say and hoped for inspiration to strike as she wended her way across the room. It didn't but then she was standing at his elbow and knew that she would just have to wing it. He was speaking to a boy who was about a head shorter than he was and looked quite a bit younger. Colin stopped talking and looked at her. Cassie chewed on her lower lip and then wished she hadn't. She knew it made her look like a little girl and right now she needed to look confident. "Uh, Colin. Can I talk to you for a minute? Privately."

"Sure. I'll catch up with you in a few minutes, Dennis, if you just want to head to dinner."

"Okay."

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation."

"That's all right. That's my brother, Dennis. He won't mind."

"Oh! How nice to have a brother here!"

Colin looked at her rather strangely at that comment. "It's not unusual to have families here. After all, you're here with your cousins and everything." Oh, yeah. Of course. And as she thought about it for a second she realized there were a lot of siblings attending here. She was alone, but of course Colin didn't know that. Yet.

"Well, actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"All right. I'm listening." His expression was not exactly closed, but Cassie could definitely tell he was not too thrilled to be talking to her again. It hurt to see that because he had been so friendly the time she had met him before. And she knew she had caused this.

"Um, when I saw you in June . . . and Harry told you I was a Muggle-born friend of Ginny's . . . That was the actual truth." The irony of this situation was not lost on her. She was telling him one lie to get out of his believing another lie she had told him. His eyes grew wide as she said this.

"So, what's the point of the whole . . ." His voice trailed off, questioning, but he gestured at her hair.

"I, uh, got myself into a spot of trouble a few days ago. Well, a lot of trouble actually. And, um, I had to hide here. Dumbledore knew I would be safe here and so he brought me, but I can't use my real name."



"What sort of trouble?"

"I can't tell you, Colin. I really can't. It has to do with Voldemort, though." Colin flinched at the name. "Oh, sorry. I . . . I use his name."

"So you're hiding here?"

"Yes, but see if people found out I was here, I mean, my name and everything . . . They would try to kill me." Cassie could barely get the next words out. "And my family."

"Okay. Well, that would be bad. So I understand the fake name thing, but . . ."

"I needed some reason why I came to school in the middle of the year and why I'm hanging out with Ginny so much." She hoped he didn't ask why exactly she was hanging out with Ginny so much. If she really had been a witch, she could be a lot more independent and wouldn't need to be permanently attached to Ginny or one of the others. But he didn't ask, so she continued her story. "So we thought that if we said I was her cousin, that it would be a bit more believable. So, if I'm a Weasley. . . "

"That explains the reddish hair."

"Yeah. But it also explains, Colin, the pure-blood thing. You see, I guess in their family, everyone's pure blood and so to say I was Muggle-born wouldn't have worked. Does that make sense?"

"It makes sense." He was looking a lot happier, now, and Cassie felt a little of the tight band of guilt that had been bothering her all afternoon loosen.

"I wasn't supposed to tell anybody and that's why I didn't tell you the truth right away. But later I asked Hermione and she said I could trust you." Colin beamed at this compliment and Cassie smiled. "So, call me Pia and please don't mention about the Muggle-born thing, okay?"

"All right. I can do that. Um, Pia. When you were here in June . . . I thought you were really pretty, then. I loved taking your picture. I mean, you're still pretty, but . . ." He was blushing and Cassie felt herself blush along with him.

"Oh, well, thank you."

"Well, I mean, I got the idea that you and Harry . . . um, Harry didn't want me to, uh . . . But, he's Ginny's boyfriend now, and so, maybe now he wouldn't object . . . ." He trailed off, again, his face quite pink. "Would you, I mean, maybe we could . . . uh, could we . . ." Cassie had a feeling that she knew what he was going to say. He wanted to ask her out. But she didn't know how to answer him, so she didn't interrupt him and put him out of his misery. He was a nice guy, but trying to date him could be a real disaster. And, although she didn't want to admit it, she wasn't interested in anyone but a certain "cousin" right now. He finally got his words together. "Um, are you going to the Quidditch match tomorrow?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Can we sit together?" Cassie didn't know what to say to that. She wanted to decline because she was a little nervous about disclosing her ignorance of the game to someone else and she didn't really want to encourage him into thinking that she was interested in him, but maybe it would work out for something else she had in mind.

"Uh, yes. But I already promised Hermione I'd sit with her. Is that okay?" He masked his disappointment quickly.

"Sure. Why not? Shall we meet in the common room?"

"Yes, thank you. I should warn you, though. I really don't know anything about Quidditch." She watched him carefully to see if that was totally bizarre but he didn't react strangely at all.

"That's okay. I can tell you what's going on for the most part. It's good I'm coming with you, then, because you really can't count on Hermione Granger telling you anything. Drives Ron nuts that she seems determined to remain ignorant about the strategy of the game."

"Oh. Yeah. I guess it would. He seems to really like it." Colin laughed.

"Likes it? That's an understatement." Just as he was going to continue, Hermione and Ginny descended into the common room and Colin broke off, not wanting to embarrass Hermione.

"I better go meet Dennis, or he'll wonder what happened to me. I'll see you in the morning, then?"

"Sure. Maybe at dinner, too?"

"Okay." His face pinkened again and Cassie flushed as well. Ginny noticed and looked at Cassie with raised eyebrows.

"I think he likes you. Do you think he's cute?"

"He's very nice, but . . ." Ron came up behind Hermione and Cassie stopped talking.

"I'm starved. Let's go down before there's no more food." Hermione laughed in response to Ron's worry.

"Don't worry. Until you get there, there's always plenty."

Harry, who was standing behind Ron, laughed along with everyone else, although Ron looked perturbed at the insinuation that he ate too much. "Come on. I'm starved, too."

The five of them headed down to dinner. Cassie felt a lot happier now that this first day was over and although the other four were chatting happily about the match tomorrow and she was trying to listen, she mainly let her mind wander over the events of the day. As they entered the Great Hall, she was taken aback. It was more full than she had ever seen it and she felt her stomach do a nervous flip-flop as it was brought home to her all the people she was trying to fool with her pitiful acting ability. Certainly at least one of them would see through her act. Certainly she would be discovered. Ginny looked at her and must have caught some of the panic in her eyes. She smiled encouragingly and they all went to sit down. Cassie sat down next to Ginny, grateful she was there.

Ron was very excited about the fact they were having fried chicken for dinner and Cassie and Ginny both laughed as he grabbed two drumsticks, one in each hand and attacked his food with gusto. Cassie caught Hermione's eye and they both shook their heads at his antics. Ron, who had taken a moment between bites to look up, saw Cassie's expression and turned to look at Hermione's shaking head. He gave both an indignant look.

"What? I'm hungry!"

Both girls giggled and continued to eat. After a slight moment, Ron forgot his embarrassment and again began to eagerly eat. Harry was sitting on Ginny's other side, which meant Cassie couldn't see how much he was eating, but she was fairly surprised at the quantity of food Ginny was putting onto her plate. Ginny explained between bites that playing Quidditch took a lot out of a person and that they all ate a lot after practice or a match. Cassie had finished her meal which, although she was very full, looked minuscule next to the amount of food the three Quidditch players were consuming when she felt Ginny stiffen next to her. "What does he want?" she muttered and Cassie looked up to where Ginny was looking and saw a boy crossing the hall toward the Gryffindor table. Well, boy probably wasn't the right word. He was close to Harry and Ron's age. The tension coming off Ginny was palpable and Cassie wondered who he was. Then her question was answered.

"Malfoy. What do you want?" Harry's voice was low and tense but that wasn't what upset Cassie. This must be Draco. He was the main one she was having to hide her real identity from and now here he was, standing no more than five feet from her and looking her over very carefully. She plastered a smile on her face to cover the absolute revulsion she felt toward him and looked him over with similar care. He was tall, not as tall as Ron, but perhaps two inches taller than Harry. He was thin and his pale face had a pinched look, like he was angry about something.

"None of your business, Potter, but you can't fault me for wanting to be sociable."

"Sociable!" Ron looked like he was about to have a fit of apoplexy as he had turned in his seat and was glaring up at Malfoy. He wanted to stand up, it was obvious to Cassie, so that he wouldn't be looking up at the blonde but as Malfoy was practically leaning over his shoulder, Ron couldn't figure out how to do it.

"Yes, Weasley. Sociable. Wanted to welcome your cousin into our little Hogwarts family." Cassie's stomach was churning and she really wished she hadn't eaten as much as she had. She tried to determine whether he was being sarcastic and whether he actually knew who she was and was trying to torment her before he called his father down onto her head. As far as she could tell, though, he was being sincere, although his comments were snide and his tone was more like a sneer than a normal voice. "Caden told me that you're his new Potions lab partner." She nodded, not trusting that her voice wouldn't tremble. "He said you were pretty, for a Weasley. Not that that's saying much." His eyes scanned over Ginny quickly before focusing on Cassie again. "He was right, though."

"That was a backhanded compliment, I believe. I don't think I will thank you for it."

His eyes narrowed. "I don't like red hair much, but yours isn't bad." Ron had apparently decided that he had had enough of sitting while Malfoy leered over his head at both Ginny and Cassie. He stood up, uncaring that Draco had to move backwards and that they were now standing very close to each other."

"Go away, Malfoy. My cousin doesn't want anything to do with you, you can be sure of that!"

"She seems capable of speaking for herself. She hasn't said any such thing." Everyone turned to look at Cassie, who suddenly felt like she was on display. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw several other students at the table looking between her and Malfoy, curious to see what they could possibly have to say to each other.

"Ron's right. I will not sit here and listen to you insult my family."

"So you actually claim them, hm? It looks like your family at least has the ability to keep you in decent robes rather than third-hand ones like your cousins wear." This time, he was very definitely looking her over, and Cassie lifted her chin. He was a rude, arrogant git and he wasn't going to get away with these insults.

"Please leave. I happen to love my cousins and I don't care anything about your opinion of them. So go away." Draco smirked.

"Fine, fine. Don't get yourself all distressed. You'll give yourself wrinkles." He turned and walked away and all five friends (as well as a number of other people) watched him walk across the room, back toward the Slytherin table. Cassie glanced at Niles, who had a fairly concerned look on his face. His eyes were moving between Draco's self-satisfied smirk and the upset expressions on the faces of Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Harry, and Cassie. He tried to shoot her an apologetic glance but Cassie ignored it. Right now she was just angry at everybody and especially at Niles who had talked about her to that idiot.

"Oh, that was fun. Maybe we can do that every day at dinner," Ginny said to the table in general and everyone laughed. But then in a much quieter voice, she said to Cassie. "You're going to have to be careful. Despite the fact that he was being a real jerk about it, I think he was trying to flirt with you. He may really think you're cute." Cassie shuddered.

"He's . . . disgusting. I wouldn't touch him with a 20-foot pole."

Ginny nodded. "Yeah. Just be careful. He's used to getting what he wants."

Cassie's hands were shaking and it took her quite a long while to calm down before she felt she could walk out of the hall with any sort of dignity. "Your robes don't look third-hand to me. What did he mean?" She asked Ginny as they stood to leave the table.

"Well, truthfully, the first couple of years I was here we did kind of wear older robes. My dad just doesn't make a lot of money at his job and there were a lot of us to take care of. But, now Fred and George help us out and we can afford new robes every year. Just shows you what an idiot he is. He hasn't even noticed that and it's been three years since I had to have anything second-hand."

"I take it that his family has a lot of money."

"Richer than Croesus, I think the expression is. Even though his father is a known Death Eater and theoretically his estate should be forfeit, it doesn't seem to matter." Ginny looked fairly disgusted and Cassie didn't blame her.

"That's not fair."

"No, it's not, but that's all right. I'd rather be poor in my family than rich and be related to that bunch." Both girls laughed.

"But I thought you were related to him." Ginny got a horrified look on her face.

"Well, we are but it's so distant that we certainly don't admit it. And you can be positive they don't!" Cassie laughed again at Ginny's shudder. They all started to talk, then, deciding what they were going to do in the evening. They split up a few minutes later with Ron, Harry, and Hermione heading up to the common room and the two younger girls promising to join them in a few minutes. Ron challenged Harry to a game of Wizard Chess and Hermione announced she had to help her roommates with their homework.

"Uh, Ginny. Remember that letter I got this morning?"

"Of course I do. Did you write him back?"

"Yes, but I don't know how to send it. I mean, I've used an owl before, but it was a return and I'm not sure how to do it from here."

"It's easy. If you don't own an owl you can use the school's."

"The school's?"

"Yeah. They're in the owlery. Let's go on up and I'll help you get your letter off." They walked across the hall and started up a narrow staircase. They climbed up at least three flights and Cassie thought that maybe this was a bad idea. She imagined that an owlery was high and she hoped that her legs would hold out until she got up there. They didn't talk very much because Cassie, at least, wanted to conserve her breath for the climb. It was about the fifth floor up that Ginny stopped on the stairs suddenly, looking back at Cassie with a small O on her mouth.

"You got that letter by owl!"

"Uh-huh." Cassie wasn't sure where Ginny was going with this comment. She had been there this morning.

"You're writing back and sending it with an owl!"

"Yes. And . . ."

"You're writing to a wizard!"

"Oh. Uh. Yes. A wizard."



"I thought Harry was the first wizard you'd ever met." Ginny was looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

"He was. Well, the first one that I knew about. But I met this guy later."

"I see. How far does this letter have to go?"

"What?"

"Where does he live?"

"Oh, yeah. London."

"Okay. We need a long-distance owl." Cassie laughed out loud, thinking Ginny was kidding. Ginny smiled.

"I'm serious. Different owls do better for either long or short distances."

"Makes sense, I guess. I'm glad you're helping me. I wouldn't have a clue where to even start." They arrived at the owlery and Ginny pushed the door open. "Oh. Oh. Oh." Cassie was quite, um, well, shocked as she looked around the room. It was just a big room with a very tall ceiling. And it was absolutely freezing in there. The room had no windows, no heat, no decorations. What it did have was a lot of owls. Cassie estimated that there had to be at least 100 of them perched on stands of varying heights. She had expected owls - in a place called the owlery, she would have been stupid not to. But, along with owls come all sorts of things she had not thought about, rather unpleasant things. Droppings were thick on the floor and she had to watch carefully where she put her feet. She couldn't avoid them altogether, though, and she tried not to be too disgusted by this. There were also bones of all sorts of small creatures all over the floor and she could feel and hear them crunching under her shoes. The owls were looking at them as they walked through and Cassie felt unaccountably nervous that they would suddenly fly at her and start pecking. Some of them were quite large. Ginny didn't seem nervous at all, though, so Cassie tried to follow her example. She shuddered as she heard a particularly loud crunch under her shoe, though, and hurried as fast as she could to a relatively clean area by the wall where Ginny was looking at a large black owl.

"This one looks like he'll do."

"Is this supposed to go in some sort of envelope? What do I write on the outside? I don't know his address or anything. What if I address it to his work rather than his home?" Cassie asked these questions quickly. She suddenly felt extremely nervous about actually admitting to Ginny that it was George this letter was meant for. She hoped that Ginny wouldn't make too big of a deal about it.

"Hang on. Let me answer your questions. No reason to be in a rush here."

"Yes there is. I'm freezing to death."

"This won't take long. No envelope is needed. Just write his name on the outside and preferably a city or a house address or something. You say you know where he works?"

"Yes."

"Well, that will do. Of course, he probably won't get it until Monday, but maybe. It just depends."

"Okay." Cassie pulled the parchment out of her robe pocket. George's name was already written on the outside, along with "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Diagon Alley, London."

"I'll tie it on for you if you want." Ginny reached into a box on the wall and pulled out a piece of string.

Cassie considered trying it herself, but the owl fixed a rather unfriendly looking eye on her and she decided it wasn't worth it. If Ginny was willing to do it, then more power to her. "All right. Here." Ginny glanced down at the writing and froze. She looked up at Cassie and her eyes got very wide. She didn't say anything for a minute, just tied the parchment onto the owl's leg, and said "George Weasley, the Burrow."

They both walked, without saying a word, out of the freezing, dark room into the relative warmth of the corridor. "All right, Cassie. That letter was from George? My brother, George?"

"Yes. I . . . well, your dad introduced us on one of the trips to Diagon Alley." They started down the steps with that comment.

"I see." Ginny smiled widely, turning to look back at Cassie. "Do you like him?" Cassie nodded, a little hesitantly, unsure of what Ginny's reaction would be. "Does he like you?" She nodded again, even more hesitantly. "You're not sure he likes you?"

"No. I know he likes me. I just . . . I just . . . . I'm not sure where it will go now."

"Do you know how old he is?" Cassie felt rather exasperated with this question. Why was that the first thing everybody thought about?

"He's 72! He's really aged well, don't you think?" She breathed heavily. This was getting very frustrating. "No seriously, Ginny. I know he's 19. Does that matter, though?"

"Well, it doesn't matter, except that . . . um, well, he's older than you are."

"Yeah?"

"He's kind of . . . um, more experienced, you know what I mean?"

Cassie thought for a few seconds as they continued down the steps. "No. What do you mean, exactly?" Ginny's ears were kind of a bright red and it was a few minutes before she said anything.

"I mean that he may want to do more than, um, hold hands with you."

"Okay. Well, we've already kissed."

Ginny whirled on the steps. "What! He's already kissed you?" She laughed, obviously not distressed with this news. "That's great!" Her face got all serious again, though, and she started down the steps again.

"He's moving fast, then. I just don't want you to, um, get hurt or anything. He may be mainly interested in just, uh, you know . . . physical stuff."

"George has treated me very nicely. I like him. I don't know what's going to happen now, but I want to give us a chance, you know? I'll be careful. My parents taught me to behave myself."

"Okay. Look. I really love George. He's a fantastic guy."

Cassie smiled. "Yeah. He is."

"You told him to call you Pia if he writes you again?"

"Uh-huh. I also told him I'm now his cousin." Ginny laughed at that.

"He probably won't be too excited to hear about that! But I guess it's only temporary." By now they were standing outside the portrait of the Fat Lady and a second later they had slipped into the warmth, noise, and happy chaos of the common room. They stood and looked around. Ron and Harry had apparently either finished their chess game or changed their mind about it, because neither of them were in the room. Hermione was with her two roommates, who had open books and parchments in front of them, and very unhappy expressions on their faces. Cassie supposed that Hermione was forcing them to do homework tonight as she had promised she would help them with it. And they seemed like the type who would prefer to be out on dates or something.

Hermione noticed them, stood up, and walked over to the two of them. She spoke quietly to them. "Ron and Harry already went up. I think they're kind of nervous about tomorrow. Ron said that you should head up soon, too, Ginny." Ginny nodded. "But look, there's one more thing you two have to do tonight. Right now."

"What's that?" Ginny asked, hiding a yawn behind her hand.

"This. It's from Dumbledore. You can use the 7th year showers. I'll keep Lavender and Pavarti down here for at least another hour. I swear, I don't know why those two are taking Arithmency. They're absolutely hopeless at it." Hermione reached into her robe pocket and pulled out a vial, handing it to Cassie.

"Um, what is it?"

"Hair dye, of course! Did you forget?" Her whisper was quiet, but her exasperation was evident anyway. Much to her chagrin, Cassie realized that she had indeed forgotten that Professor Dumbledore's spell would be wearing off soon. The two girls headed up to their room where they grabbed pyjamas, robes, toothbrushes, and the rest of their toiletries and headed up one flight of stairs to a new set of showers.

Cassie was extremely nervous about dying her hair. She had never done it before. Ginny was also inexperienced and the vial did not come with instructions. However, Cassie just combed it in and then washed it out in the shower, and was very pleased with the results. The color was a perfect match to how it had looked before. Cassie stood in front of the mirror, brushing her teeth, waiting for Ginny to come out of the shower to help her dry her hair. It was very frustrating, needing to depend on someone else for such things. She had a sudden thought, though.

A few minutes later, Ginny emerged from the shower and came over to the sink where Cassie was already working on her hair. "What are you doing?"

"Braiding my hair. It can dry overnight and I won't have to worry about having you do it in the morning. In fact, I probably won't even shower in the morning since I just barely did." Ginny watched, fascinated, as Cassie's fingers wound her hair into a French braid down the center of her head.

"That looks really good. And the braid will really help in the morning. I won't have to explain why I'm drying your hair again."

Cassie finished the braid, tucking the raw end below the elastic up into the braid and patting her hair all over. "What do you think?"

That's just fantastic. Do you think my hair would do that?"

"Yeah, of course. French braiding always looks good, even with longer hair like yours. Do you want me to do it for you?"

"Would you? It would be great for tomorrow's game. Usually it gets in my eyes, even when I put it back in a ponytail."

Cassie was pleased to be able to do that for Ginny and 10 minutes later her red hair was tucked into a reverse French braid that continued down her back before the elastic finished it off. "Ooh. I love that. Could you teach me how to do it?"

"Sure. But not tonight. I'm exhausted." They gathered up all their things and headed back down to their dorm room where they both crawled into bed. Cassie realized as she lay there that she had never asked Hermione how to send the letter to her parents that she had written today. Hermione had specifically said she wasn't to use owl post, but she hadn't told her what she would be using instead. She lay in the warmth of her bed for quite a few minutes, thinking that she had managed her entire first day at wizarding school, made a small name for herself in Potions, been cursed by a werewolf, been tasted by one plant and bitten by another, met the son of her worst wizarding enemy, made a kind of date with another boy, and confessed to Ginny that she liked her brother. A full day indeed. Actually, the letter she had written home had not really done an adequate job of conveying how interesting going to wizarding school really was. Maybe she should rewrite it tomorrow. Her last thought before she drifted into sleep was that of a giant quill chasing her around on a giant sheet of parchment and she smiled.