Chapter 18

A Quiet Sunday

Cassie awoke Sunday morning feeling homesick for her family and her own bed. Sunday mornings were always special at home. It was the one day where all of her family, including her dad, were sure to be together. Her dad always cooked breakfast, quite often taking breakfast to her mum in bed while the kids ate in the kitchen. He usually cooked his special omelets stuffed full of ham and bacon, several different types of peppers, a couple of different types of onions, mushrooms and plenty of cheese. After a leisurely breakfast was church, followed by family activities like a picnic at a park or a visit to a museum or just spending a quiet afternoon together at home. Cassie had thought of her family a number of times the two full days she had been at Hogwarts. She had missed them, but had been too busy to really dwell on how far apart they were. But now, lying quietly in bed, Cassie had the time for it all to sink in. She missed them horribly and hoped that she would be able to go back home soon.

After a couple of minutes of quietly crying, Cassie calmed down, wiped away her tears and silently berated herself. She was not going to mope around feeling sorry for herself in front of her friends. They had opened their hearts and their school to her. Furthermore, they were protecting her, perhaps even at the risk of their own lives. No, she was not going to be grumpy. She was going to force herself to be happy and cheerful and felt that if she did that, well, her heart might be fooled just like everyone else.

Cassie drew back the curtains to her bed and looked around the room, now awash in the bright winter sunshine. The other beds, including Ginny's, still had their curtains closed. Except for Saffron's. She was sitting on the edge of her bed slipping on her shoes. She had already showered and dressed and was ready to head downstairs. Cassie smiled at her. Saffron smiled back but the smile didn't extend to her eyes. Cassie suddenly realized Saffron had been very quiet after the howler last night and had still been in a corner of the commons room studiously poring over her books when she had come upstairs.

"Hey! You're getting an early start."

"Uh, yeah. I'm going to have to spend the day studying." Saffron grimaced and picked up her very full bookbag.

"Yeah. I need to do some homework today, too. I've got a lot of catching up to do in some of the subjects."

"Well, hopefully your parents aren't the type to send howlers and embarrass the hell out of you in front of the whole school."

"No, they're not. I can imagine how . . ."

"Not unless you've received one. Trust me. They're a lot worse than you would expect. It's humiliating." She turned to leave the room and then seemed to change her mind as she turned again and walked toward Cassie, feeling like she needed to explain. "I love my dad. And he loves me, too. He's just kind of tough when it comes to grades and other things like that. It's . . . well, it's because we're pure blood. There aren't as many pure blood families any more and he feels we always have to be the best at everything. Perfect. Living up to our pure heritage and all of that junk. Well, you understand what I mean. You're pure blood and I'm sure you get the same lecture." She looked at Cassie with a speculative expression. "Then again, maybe you don't if you're like your cousins - Muggle lovers and all. Don't seem to have much pride in wizarding blood." Behind the words was an unspoken challenge to Cassie to disagree. Cassie didn't dare say anything although of course she did think that was a rather stupid attitude. She thought it entirely possible Saffron would punch her if she actually said that. She had a level of pent-up energy that to Cassie seemed a little dangerous. The dark-haired girl left a few moments later, leaving Cassie to her own devices. She thought about trying to go back to sleep, but decided against it. This might be a really good time to head down to the shower.

By the time Ginny had awakened and pulled back her bed curtains, Cassie had gone down, showered, towel-dried her hair, done her makeup, and was back up and just buttoning her blouse. Cassie cheerfully wished her a good morning, hoping she did indeed sound cheerful. Ginny looked at her in surprise and motioned to her hair. Cassie walked over and whispered that she had just towel-dried the hair and would let it dry the old-fashioned way. Ginny grinned, climbed out of bed, grabbed her robe and toiletries and started for the door. Cassie grabbed her makeup bag and stuffed it into Ginny's hands. Ginny smiled a thanks and left.

While Cassie was waiting for Ginny to come back from the showers, Hermione came looking for her clean laundry. It was laying neatly folded on the top of Ginny's trunk. After a few hellos to Cassie and the other two girls who were just barely emerging from their bed curtains, Hermione left with her load of clean clothes. Cassie thought about the elves and then remembered her letter to her parents. She checked the end of her bed. Sure enough, the letter was gone. She really tried not to get too freaked out at the thought of one of those little elves looking in on her while she slept. They were very nice and she was sure they didn't stand by the bed and stare at the students. If they did that, they would never get everything done.

Cassie and Ginny descended the steps into the common room where Hermione and the boys were engaged in a lively discussion of something that Cassie could not overhear. They went down for breakfast and even though Cassie told herself that she shouldn't be disappointed, the simple breakfast of porridge and canned fruit was a bit of a let-down. She ate as much as she could, which wasn't much, knowing that it would be a long day before dinner. She spent quite a bit of the breakfast time staring up at the ceiling. Now that she knew its secret, it was fascinating to watch the clouds as they passed overhead. She and the others eventually made their way up to the commons room where all the students present seemed to be in deep study. Cassie noted Saffron in the same corner as before with books, charts, parchment, a quill and some partly eaten pieces of toast surrounding her.

Cassie sighed in resignation as she pulled open her bookbag about 20 minutes later. She had situated herself in the middle of one of the large tables with Ginny on one side and Hermione on the other. The two boys were slower coming downstairs but they would, naturally, be sitting at the same table with them. Hermione had enlisted the help of her very large cat Crookshanks to sit on the sixth chair at the table. She had told the cat to hiss if anyone tried to push him off. Cassie was not sure if this would actually work but it was probably better than nothing. As it was, they were going to have to be very careful as they worked on Cassie's homework and they didn't want anyone else sitting in that seat and overhearing how much help Ginny and Hermione were giving her. She really did not know how difficult this was going to be but she certainly was not looking forward to finding out.

Cassie had decided to start with her Defense essay first and then work on the Herbology worksheet. Then, if she needed to, she could come back to the essay for proofreading and making another copy. Not that she wanted to have to write the thing twice, but she would if she had to. The thing was, and she realized this with a rather depressed quirk of her lips, she had only had two classes where homework was even assigned and then she had three days to work on them. She did not know what was going to happen as she got into the swing of things fully next week and had many more assignments and only a few hours at night to work on them. Of course, she didn't really care if her grades were bad. As long as they were good enough to keep her in the classes with Ginny and not get her humiliated in front of other students who might get suspicious at her pitiful efforts.

She thought for a minute as the other two girls pulled out their books and quills and dug right into their assignments. She was supposed to write on her experience under the Imperius Curse. Cassie dipped the blasted quill into the ink bottle and started writing. She worked hard on the essay, barely grunting in response when Ginny would ask how she was doing or Ron would launch into a major complaint session about their potions class. She couldn't believe that two hours had passed by the time she put her quill down. Her hands were ink-stained and she had one blotch on her jeans but all in all the parchment looked fairly decent. If she were in kindergarten, she'd even say it was good. She glanced sideways at Hermione who was busily writing a very complex looking paper. Her writing was perfect - almost like calligraphy -- and Cassie groaned at the comparison. Oh, well. That was all right.

"How long was that essay supposed to be?" Hermione asked as she noticed Cassie waiting for the ink to dry before rolling up her parchment.

"Uh. How long is it supposed to be? What do you mean?"

"Did Lupin assign a length? Like 2 feet or 6 inches or anything?" Ginny seemed deeply involved in the potions textbook and wasn't paying any attention to their conversation and Hermione got ready to poke her when Cassie suddenly remembered.

"I think he said 12 inches. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah. That's typical for him. You need to add at least one more inch, then. That's not long enough."

"You mean you measure the length of the essay?" That concept was so bizarre to Cassie that she felt a bubble of laughter in the back of her throat and fought to suppress it. The entire common room was quiet, with students studying quite hard at the various tables and some reading on the couches.

"Well, you don't' have to measure. But I can assure you that the professors do. The standard parchment sheet is 18 inches and your haven't filled up enough of it." She sounded quite sanctimonious about it.

"That's got to be two-thirds of the parchment, Hermione."

"Trust me." Cassie's eyes widened with surprise as Hermione pulled out a measuring tape and held it up against the parchment. Eleven inches. Dang. "Another inch." She turned back to her work, expecting Cassie to get right back to work. Cassie stared for a moment at the parchment. It was dry now, ready to be rolled up. She even looked at her quill which was ready and waiting to be used to add another inch of some nonsense at the end of an already completed essay.

"No. I'm not going to do it, Hermione. After all, what's he going to do? Fail me?" Hermione just shrugged but she looked a little disappointed. Cassie rolled up the parchment and tucked it into her bookbag. It would do. And she still had the nastier assignment to do, so she didn't want to waste any more time on this one.

She stood up and stretched, glancing around at the other four seated at the table. Ginny was obviously working on the potions essay she had been assigned as she had a textbook opened in front of her to a page labeled "Veritaserum - A Truly Difficult Potion." Cassie stared at the heading for a minute. Someone must have a really warped sense of humor for that one. She couldn't really tell what the other three were studying. Ron had a big pile of crumpled parchments by his elbow and was looking extremely aggravatedly at the piece he was trying to work on. Harry seemed to take a more methodical approach to his work. His bright green eyes were moving quickly over the text in a thick book and he was scribbling notes on a sheet of parchment he had tucked under the corner of the heavy volume. He must have felt Cassie's eyes on him as he suddenly looked up and met her blue gaze. She flushed under his scrutiny and sat back down quickly into her chair. He smiled at her and she returned it. He looked back down at his book and Cassie felt stupid for staring at him any longer. So she dug into her bookbag again for the much despised Herbology book.

Ginny apparently needed some help with the potions essay because after about a half hour she leaned over Cassie and asked Hermione a question. Hermione answered it quickly, then scowled heavily. "I still don't understand. What happened in Potions on Friday?" Ginny gave a quick rundown of the class and how they had been separated.

"It's completely unfair that I should have to do this stupid essay. The girls' cauldron behind me exploded and while we were trying to get the hot Veritaserum off us that we missed the exact moment to add the next stupid ingredient. And he knows that's what happened, too! That's what's so frustrating!" Hermione's scowl deepened.

"He's having you brew Veritaserum?" Ginny got a very aggravated look on her face.

"Yes. Which is ridiculous because it's not on the curriculum! He's just trying to use it as a threat against Pia. He said he wanted to use it on her!" That not only got Hermione's attention, but also Ron and Harry's.

Three simultaneous voices said "What?!" at once and there was a ripple through the commons room as various students looked up at the noise.

"Yeah. He said he always tests the students' Veritaserum potions by using them on various students. And he was looking right at Pia." Harry and Ron started spluttering about how evil Snape was, a seemingly well-rehearsed speech that they pulled out often for such occasions. Harry started talking quickly about how they'd have to have Dumbledore tell Snape that he wasn't allowed to use the potion on any students. Ron was just spluttering in indignation.

"This is not good. This is seriously not good." Hermione was unaware that her quill, held against her parchment, was leaking ink and making a very messy blotch on her otherwise perfect parchment scroll. "We'll have to tell Dumbledore immediately about this."

"Oh, we've got plenty of time. He said it takes a long time to brew, I think three weeks. By then it will be Christmas and I should be long gone by then." Cassie was whispering and looking around to see if anyone else was listening to their urgent conversation.

"Yeah, but we all know Snape. I wouldn't put it past him to pull out a batch he made a while ago and say that he didn't want to wait a month." Ginny looked down at her book. "I guess he could do anything he wants. He's tested stuff on us before - other classes' attempts and all that."

"Veritaserum is a highly dangerous drug, Ginny."

"I know. Pia definitely should not be forced to take some. It could ruin everything."

"That's true but that's not what I'm worried about. Did you know that we cannot use Veritaserum on Muggles.?"

"No. I didn't."

"Well, it's true, we can't. The ingredients are, um, poisonous to them. It will kill them!" Hermione was now whispering louder and some students were looking around, hoping to see what all the fuss was about. Cassie blanched. "Keep your Skiving Snackboxes with you. You cannot take that potion. Absolutely not."

"Okay. I'll remember." Cassie was nervous about that announcement. She had been hoping to tell Professor Dumbledore that she would be happy to take the Veritaserum if it proved that what she was saying was actually true. That idea was instantly shot down.

Cassie closed her Herbology textbook about an hour later with a sigh of relief and rolled up the blasted worksheet she had had to fill out. She was tired and ready for a break from her quill and ink bottle. This worksheet had been really hard and she had made a complete disaster of it many times. Hermione had cast a cleaning spell over it several times until Cassie finally felt like it was not so bad that the teacher would get suspicious. She thanked Hermione for cleaning up her work. Hermione smiled and went back to studying, or attempting to. Ron, who had raced through the last part of his homework, was sitting next to her looking bored and doing what he could to get her attention. This included whispering and even lightly blowing in her ear, moving her book back and forth, and taking her quill and parchment and writing on it. This had particularly gotten Hermione's attention since when she read the little notes, her face turned pink and she grinned. However, she muttered something about his not even getting a peck on the cheek if he didn't leave her alone and let her finish her homework. Harry and Ginny grinned at each other as they too closed their books and began putting things back into their bookbags.

Cassie checked her watch and realized she and Elspeth were supposed to meet Colin in about fifteen minutes. She grabbed her bookbag and headed up the stairs quickly. She didn't want to make either of them wait for her. Ginny joined her and mentioned she and Harry were going to go for a walk. Cassie smiled to herself. Apparently, Sunday was a good day for the couples to relax and have a chance to be a little more romantic. She waited for a pang of jealously toward Ginny to surface, but actually only felt slightly envious that she had someone to spend a quiet Sunday with while Cassie was going to be spending her afternoon trying to get Elspeth and Colin together. She wished that she had someone at Hogwarts whom she could escape with, either to the Astronomy Tower or one of the places Harry had mentioned the night before.

Elspeth was fussing with her hair when the two girls came into the room and Cassie could only imagine that she was extremely nervous. She was wearing a neat print skirt and a soft-looking sweater. Cassie smiled at her kindly when she turned to look at her. Elspeth's eyes were bright with excitement and nervousness. "Do I look all right?"

"You look beautiful. Really. I'm sure he'll be blown away." Elspeth smiled a shaky thanks and started fussing with her hair again.

"He thinks you're pretty."

"No, I don't think so. I think it's just that . . . I'm new. I'm someone that hasn't ever seen them when they were 11 and trying to learn to fly a broom. I've never seen them get a howler or a million other embarrassing things that I'm sure you all get used to when you live with people as closely as you students do. That's all it is, really."

Elspeth looked hopefully up at her. "So you think that maybe I stand a chance?"

"Of course you do. I like Colin but I don't think I'm interested in him in a romantic way or anything. I was going to tell him that but seeing him with you yesterday made me wonder if I really have to. He may have found something else to occupy him." Elspeth giggled and Cassie smiled at her again. "Come on. We'll be late if we don't head down there right away."

"Don't you think it's good for him to have to wait a bit?" They both laughed. Cassie quickly glanced in Elspeth's mirror to make sure that she didn't have ink on her face. She decided that she could probably freshen her makeup a little bit and stepped over to her bed to grab her makeup case from her trunk. Her eyes opened wide. George's owl was sitting on her bed, three letters clutched in its talons.

"Ooh. Icharus! Ginny, George sent us all some letters!" Cassie was surprised to find her heartbeat speeding up a little bit. Maybe Sunday would be a romantic day for her, also. "Elspeth, can you wait just another minute?"

"Of course. No problem. I think I'll go brush my teeth again, anyway." She scampered out the door and Cassie watched her go for a second before she turned greedily back to the owl. The letters were from Fred and George and addressed to Cassie, Ginny, and Ron. Ginny sat down next to Cassie on her bed and both girls opened their letters. Ginny tucked Ron's into her pocket to give to him when she saw him later. Cassie's heart was still beating fast as she quickly scanned her letter and then read it more slowly.

Dear Pia, It was very good hearing from you. I always love to get letters from my cousins, especially you. Everyone is okay here. Dad and the others are working as hard as they can on the situation. Hogwarts is the best place you can be right now. Dumbledore won't let anything happen to you. Stick close to Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. Maybe you can join the D.A. and learn some protective spells from Harry. He's a really good teacher. Talk with Ginny and Harry about it. I know Lupin is teaching Defense this year (finally, a decent teacher) and he may be willing to give you private lessons on the side. Please write me back as soon as you can and let me know how you're doing. In regard to my thoughts about you, think of the ice cream shop. Your favorite cousin, George

Cassie sighed happily and then blushed as she realized that Ginny would have heard her romantic affectations. She glanced at Ginny who was fighting hard to suppress a smile. Ginny looked up at Cassie and whispered, "Even though it's signed from Fred and George, it's obvious mine was written by George. Three times he's told me to take care of you." Cassie could feel herself blushing as Ginny continued. "He really cares about you, I can tell."

On impulse, Cassie tucked the letter along with a blank piece of parchment and her much-hated quill into her bookbag and emptied it of the heavy textbooks. She wanted to write back to him immediately but knew she would have to wait until after she saw Colin's photographs. Right now, that did not sound nearly as interesting as it had five minutes ago. Elspeth hurried into the room and put her toiletry bag back on her trunk. "All right. Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Sorry to keep you waiting." Ginny grabbed her heavy cloak and her scarf and Cassie teased her as they left the room.

"Don't do anything Ron would be mad about, Ginny. He will find out." Ginny just scowled.

"If I did that, we wouldn't even be able to hold hands." The girls' light laughter echoed down the stairs and they followed it down into the commons room. Harry was waiting down there with his heavy cloak and he looked up expectantly as Cassie and Elspeth entered.

"She's coming right behind us. She's just getting bundled up." Harry grinned happily at her and continued his vigil. Cassie and Elspeth found an empty table and sat down to wait for Colin. A few minutes later the boy appeared carrying two large photo albums in his arms. He looked around the room and got a big smile on his face when he saw the girls.

"Hi, Elspeth. Hi, Pia. Sorry I'm late. I had to finish my homework and then get the albums. What did you guys think of that essay for Lupin?" The three sat down at the table, talking animatedly about their essays, with Colin in between the two girls. He started immediately with the traditional still Muggle photos. Elspeth stared in amazement at them commenting on how weird they looked. She couldn't imagine having a photograph that didn't move. There were both color and black and white photos of people and scenery. Cassie noted to herself how really excellent the pictures were. Colin truly did have a talent for taking photographs. She thought of her own photographs still hidden in her room at home and remembered how good they were. The thought of her own photos made her heart skip a beat. Had Colin remembered to remove his copies of those incriminating photographs?

She sat there nervously thinking of the consequences if he hadn't removed them and Elspeth recognized her. What would she say? Cassie hardly registered Colin's transition from his collection of still photographs to what he called a collection of his favorites. About two pages in, Cassie noticed a page only had a couple of photos on it rather than the five or six that the other pages had. "What happened to these pictures?" Elspeth touched the place where a picture had obviously been.

"Oh, my mum really liked those particular shots of Dennis so I sent them home last week. I need to replace them with some other pictures, but I haven't gotten around to it yet." Cassie relaxed immediately. The two of them started chatting happily over the pictures of various students and places associated with the school and other wizarding locations and Cassie, who was unable to join in on the conversation at all, started letting her mind drift and it naturally drifted toward the letter that was now burning a hole in her bookbag. When the other two students took a break to catch their breaths, Cassie jumped in.

"Would you two mind if I left you to finish these up alone? I've got to write a letter and my homework took a lot longer than I thought it would."

"No. That's fine." Colin smiled at her and then turned back to his album. Elspeth looked up at her smiled gratefully. Cassie didn't feel guilty at all about leaving the two of them alone as they both looked very happy at this new development.

Cassie found a quiet corner of another table and sat for a minute, thinking about how she would answer George's letter. She was about to suck on the tip of her quill, like she always did with her regular ballpoint pens, but caught herself before she got ink all over her face. Then she began to write.

Dear Cousin George, I was really happy to get your letter. I'm doing fine here and am keeping busy. Friday I went to Potions, Herbology and D.A.D.A. I did really well in Potions, which I guess was a surprise with Professor Snape. I didn't do too well in Herbology. Some plant started chewing on me and it kept spitting nasty black "tar" at me. Everyone laughed. Well, I didn't. D.A.D.A went well because Remus Lupin is the professor and you're right about him being a good teacher. We practiced trying to fight against the Imperius Curse and I did a lot better than I thought I would. Ginny did well, too, by the way.

Yesterday, there was a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Ginny told me you and Fred used to be beaters, so I watched them a lot. Someday, George, I really want to see you fly. Would that be all right? Ginny, Harry, and Ron were fantastic in the match. In fact, the whole game was incredible. Ron got hurt, but he's doing better now. Gryffindor won which made everyone really happy. Plus, it gave us a great excuse to have a party. I have to say that there were a lot of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in attendance - Dragon Kisses, canary cremes, and a variety of other goodies were being devoured in great quantities. I passed on all of them. I still remember that one incident at the shop and decided I wasn't up for a repeat.

Ginny and the others are really treating me nicely and I know I'm definitely safe here at Hogwarts. I just hope everyone else will be safe. Take care of yourself, and write me back soon.

Love, your cousin, Pia

She read the letter again. It sounded innocuous enough although of course it just perpetrated the big lie about her supposed magical talent. She didn't have to feel guilty about not telling him, though. These letters had to be written with the thought that they might be intercepted and she definitely could not announce that she was a Muggle in one. So, that would just have to wait until she saw him again. Cassie had just finished her letter when Ginny and Harry slid through the portrait hole into the room. "It's really cold outside. We decided we'd had enough. Besides, it will be time for dinner soon. Oh, you've already written George back?" Cassie blushed and grinned. "Great, I'll write something quick and maybe we can go to the owlery on our way down to eat. Oh, and be sure to put in your letter that this next Saturday is a Hogsmeade weekend."

Cassie had no idea what exactly Ginny meant by that, but dutifully wrote,

P.S. Ginny wanted me to tell you that this Saturday is Hogsmeade weekend.

Cassie got ready to fold the letter, took one last look at it, and was pleasantly surprised. It was actually legible. No, it wasn't great. She had to admit that the writing resembled when she was about six or seven. Even so, it was at least legible and she felt proud of that. By the time they were ready to go to dinner, Ginny had finished a note to her brothers and had slipped Cassie's letter in with hers. The three of them, Cassie, Ginny, and Harry, all headed up to the owlery to mail it off. They found Icharus dozing quietly on a perch and Ginny tied both letters to the large bird's leg and they sent it off with a call of "George Weasley, the Burrow."

"Um, not to be stupid, but what's the burrow? You said that last time, too." Ginny flushed.

"Oh. That's our house. The name of our house. It kind of fits it, if you ever get to see it."

"Okay." Cassie thought that she would very much like to see this house named the Burrow. It sounded sort of interesting. They made their way to dinner where they found Ron and Hermione already digging in to what looked like a really nice meal. Next to them were Colin and Elspeth who seemed to be in an animated conversation. The three sat down across from them and next to Neville on one side and Rhiannon on the other side.

They helped themselves to the platters of roast beef and grilled salmon. Cassie thought they both looked good and so had small helpings of both. Saffron came in a few minutes later and sat down on the other side of Rhiannon. She looked exhausted and told Rhiannon she had been studying all day on an extra-credit assignment. Cassie felt sorry that she felt so pressured by her father and again wondered who he was. She wished she were brave enough to ask Saffron for a picture of him, but she wasn't. Maybe Dumbledore would have one and then the mystery of where she had heard that voice in the howler before would be solved.

Cassie's thoughts of Dumbledore made her look up to the head table where the Headmaster and almost all the other teachers were eating. Dumbledore was deep in conversation with Remus Lupin who was sitting next to him. She, however, felt eyes on her and looked to Lupin's side. Professor Snape was glaring menacingly at her.

Cassie looked away and tried to go back to eating. After a moment or so, she looked back up and saw that Snape was still staring at her. And he didn't look happy. In fact, he looked like he would be willing to throw a nasty curse at her if it was not forbidden by school rules. Obviously, Cassie realized with a sickening feeling in her stomach, he had heard the stories and comments going around of how she had stood up to him in his class and shown him up. She had a sudden and very unpleasant realization that Snape would do his best to maker her absolutely miserable the next time she was in his class. She no longer had an appetite and quietly laid down her fork.

Cassie was still lost in her own thoughts when a stern-looking woman with a Scottish accent approached the table. "Miss Pia Spencer? I am Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House. I feel you should know how highly irregular this is to have you begin school in the middle of the term. Furthermore, I am very concerned that you might not be prepared either in your education or your experience to handle the difficult lessons and assignments in sixth year. However," she seemed to have a very unhappy but resigned expression on her face, "Professor Dumbledore seems to feel you can more than adequately handle the assignments. I hope you will not let him or Gryffindor down."

Cassie gave a slight gulp and tried her best to look self-assured. "Uh, it's a pleasure to meet you Professor McGonagall. I appreciate being allowed to come Hogwarts and I'll do my best to do well in the classes."

"Yes, well. I've heard good things up to this point. You've got class with me tomorrow and I shall see how skilled you really are." Cassie thought that she looked almost glad that she would be able to put her through her magical paces. This did not make Cassie feel any more calm and relaxed. She hoped that she did not have Potions tomorrow as well. That could make her life very miserable. Professor McGonagall looked at Cassie with a mildly concerned expression.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to meet with you in his office immediately following dinner. He said that the meeting concerns your parents. I think you should go along, Mr. and Miss Weasley, since you're family and it must concern you as well."

Cassie had a sudden, horrible feeling and, for a moment, thought she might get physically sick. Everyone sitting around her had shocked and concerned expressions, too. Harry stood up.

"Did he say what the problem is?"

"No, Mr. Potter, he didn't. And I didn't ask."

"Hermione and I will go with her, too."

"I think not, Mr. Potter. I don't think you need to be involved in family matters."

"But . . ." Harry looked as panicked as Cassie felt and she wished with all her heart that he could be there with her. Her eyes searched frantically for Ginny but found her standing looking a little pale and frightened, which did nothing to reassure her.

"No buts, Mr. Potter. Now, Miss Spencer, Professor Dumbledore has left for his office, I really think you and your cousins should go up there immediately."