Chapter 23

Another Letter from George

Cassie groaned as she rolled over in bed. She really did not want to face the day today. And she was feeling kind of grouchy. She wasn't supposed to have class until 10 and she was planning on ditching it anyway. She wasn't sure how she was going to pull it off but she figured that if she just refused to go, there wasn't much Ginny could do about it anyway. She would just pretend she wasn't feeling well and spend the morning, maybe even the whole day, here in bed.

"Pia, you'd better get up. We're supposed to meet Hermione and everyone down in the common room in 15 minutes." Normally by the time they had their daily pre-breakfast planning meeting, Cassie and Ginny had to have showered and dressed. Today, they had decided they would just be slobs at the meeting and breakfast then come back up to their room to shower because they would have the dorm to themselves while everyone else was at class. That had been the plan last night before Cassie settled on her new plan - which was to not budge from this bed.

She briefly considered lying to Ginny and telling her she was sick, but decided that could just cause problems. She would tell her the truth and let her lie to everyone else who wanted to know where she was. She pulled the pillow over her face. She was tired of this place. How much longer was she supposed to stay here, anyway? She wanted to go home. She wanted. . . well, she wasn't sure what she wanted. But she knew it didn't involve going to classes on subjects she didn't care about pretending to be something she wasn't.

As she expected a minute later, her curtains were pulled back and Ginny looked in on her. "Are you all right?" She just grunted. She didn't want to be rude to Ginny, who had been nothing but nice to her, but right now she couldn't think of a single nice thing to say to her. She could just go down and snog her boyfriend by herself. Cassie didn't want to watch it. "I'm okay. I'm not going to class today." She wondered how much of that Ginny could understand through the pillow. Not much apparently.

"What? Are you feeling okay?"

That was her opening. All she had to do was push the pillow off her face and say, "no" and she could be left alone here to feel sorry for herself, which is what she really wanted to do. She pushed the pillow off her face okay, but instead of saying no she repeated her statement. "I'm okay, Ginny. I'm just not going to class today. You can tell everyone I'm sick."

There was silence for a few moments and Cassie chanced a glance over at her friend. Ginny's brows were drawn together in concern. "So . . . you want me to tell everyone you're sick? You don't want to come to class?"

Cassie pulled the pillow back over her face and nodded. This time, Ginny didn't ask any questions. She just pulled the pillow away from Cassie's face. "Get up. If you're not sick, you can't ditch class."

"Says who?" Cassie could hear that she sounded like a 5-year-old whining brat, but she didn't really care. She wanted to be a whining brat. She wanted to be left alone.

"Says me. Says everyone. What is your problem?"

"No problem." Cassie rolled over, burying her face in the mattress. The truth is, that maybe she wanted to get everyone mad. And she was smart enough to realize that this could be what was motivating her sudden moodiness. Maybe if Remus was mad at her, he'd pay attention to her and get her out of here. Maybe her parents could insist she come back home. Maybe Professor Dumbledore could tell her how long she was doomed to stay here. Maybe if she threw a big enough fit . . . well, at least it would make her feel better.

"Look, Pia. What happened? You seemed all right last night." Cassie finally sat up and looked Ginny full in the face.

"I am all right. I'm just tired of struggling through every class. I've looked at my schedule today, and I don't want to go to class. At all. Just tell everyone I'm sick. No one will care. And it's not like my grades are going to suffer. Think how easy your day will be if you don't have to take care of me." That last one was kind a low blow, but she thought it might make Ginny more amenable to the idea.

"Hmmm. All right. Lay back down. Here's your pillow." The bed hangings were closed again and Cassie stared at the spot where a second before Ginny had been standing.

Had it really been that easy? She was almost surprised. She had been in the mood for a knock-down drag out fight and she had just handed her back her pillow and told her to go back to bed. Well, that is what she wanted, wasn't it? Fine. She would. She raised her head and stuffed the pillow underneath. She had just closed her eyes, resolved to actually do what she had threatened Ginny with when the curtains were ripped open again, wide this time and not nicely. This time, the head that poked through them was not Ginny's. It was Hermione's and Cassie could have sworn that she had fire in her eyes.

"What is going on here? Ginny told us some ridiculous story about your not getting up this morning."

"Tattle tale." Cassie glared past Hermione's shoulder to where she could see Ginny standing there. Ginny just shrugged.

"I'm smart enough to get help when I need it."

"Hermione. I appreciate your concern. I do. It's just hard to do this, you know? I'm tired. I don't want to go to classes today."

"Well, that's big of you. I'd hate to think you'd overtaxed yourself by going to two days worth of classes where you don't even have to do any of the work. So you really think you've worked hard enough to earn a rest, huh?"

Cassie had a sudden overwhelming feeling of guilt. It was true that everyone else was working a lot harder than she was. She shoved that feeling aside. All the more reason for her to ditch class. They could all relax if they didn't have to worry about her. She was just about to explain this to Hermione when the other girl said,

"There may be a day when you do have to ditch because you have no other options. Today is not it. If you stay here in bed today and then miss another day later, it will be too conspicuous. You need to get up. And I don't care what sort of reasoning you are using. You either get up on your own or I'll force you. And you know I can."

"I don't want to go to Herbology." Where had that come from? She had meant to lambast Hermione for threatening to force her to do anything with magic. She had opened her mouth to dare her to do it. She had planned on telling her that she would like to see her try it. Instead, something completely different had come out.

Hermione laughed loudly and Cassie scowled. "It was terrible. I don't want to go there again."

Ginny laughed too and Cassie flopped back down on her bed. "So, you're willing to face Snape - who is threatening to use Veritaserum on you? You're willing to face McGonagall for heck's sake? You're willing to listen to Hagrid wax poetic about a chimera? You can face down Draco Malfoy barely blinking an eyelash?! But you won't go to a greenhouse and deal with a bunch of plants!" Her voice had been getting louder and louder and Cassie wondered if the entire common room downstairs could hear Hermione yelling at her. Cassie stared at her, eyes wide, wondering what she was supposed to say.

"I guess I am being a bit of a prat, aren't I?" All the anger she had been carefully stoking in her gut disappeared and she stared at the two girls who were bending over her. "I hate that class."

"Well, you can hate it, but it's not hard."

"That's true. But the stupid plants keep biting me."

"Ginny said she was a little bit too relaxed in class on Friday. She's going to take better care of you today, if you need her to. And Neville was saying on Sunday that he thought he was going to help you more next class period, which would be today. So you'll have two people to . . ." and Hermione, who was valiantly trying to keep a straight face suddenly couldn't keep it in any longer. She broke into gales of laughter, flopping down on the bed across Cassie's legs. She finally managed to pull herself together enough to finish her sentence. " . . . protect you from the big, bad plants." All three of them laughed hard. Her bed was actually shaking as both she and Hermione kept laughing. Ginny got so weak in the knees from her laughing that she had to sit down on her own bed, where she grabbed her pillow and buried her face in it as she tried to regain control. After a few minutes, Cassie felt most of her frustration evaporate.

"Okay. I'll get up. Sorry I was being such a jerk." She extricated her legs out from under Hermione who was still laying there laughing like a maniac. She grabbed her clothes from her trunk and hurriedly threw them on. She had caused a big problem and she was going to try as hard as she could to make up for it. Five minutes later, the three of them were heading down the stairs to the common room where Harry and Ron were pacing nervously in front of one of the couches. Harry looked a lot happier when he saw Cassie coming down the stairs with them. She smiled wanly and hoped that when Hermione and Ginny described what an idiot she had been this morning it would be at some point where she didn't have to hear Harry laugh at her. She wasn't sure she could handle having him think she was being stupid.

They had their meeting extremely quickly. This was partly because the classes for the day shouldn't be too stressful and partly because the common room was quite busy and they didn't want to look too conspicuous and risk being overheard. She just had one class today that could be trouble and that was Potions right after lunch. She really couldn't count Herbology even though she was really dreading that one.

"So, Pia. If he starts talking about using Veritaserum, don't hesitate to use the Snackboxes, but otherwise, just do what you did last time. It seemed to work." Cassie grimaced. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to be as easy today as it had been last time. And that had been no picnic. But she thought that Snape would probably keep a very close eye on her.

"Can I ask one question about those that just kind of dawned on me yesterday?"

"Sure." They were all standing up now, getting ready to head down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"If I use the Fainting Fancies, how am I supposed to take the antidote to that one? Won't I be, uh, unconscious?"

"Hey! That's a good question." Harry said, looking at Ron and then Hermione. Ginny is the one who answered the question, though.

"Well, that used to be a problem. You had to have someone who was your partner who could put the light side into your mouth as you lay there passed out on the floor. But they've redone the formula. Now you faint but come back around after a few minutes. If you don't take the antidote within about five minutes, though, you faint again." Harry raised his eyebrow at that.

"You're kidding. Does it just keep going?"

"Yeah. I think so. They tested it up to 30 times. And every fainting spell was just as impressive as the first one. They work great."

Cassie sighed. "I think I'll try the other ones before I use that one. It just sounds a little too scary for me. I don't like to be out of control of myself." She really didn't want to use any of them. No offense to George, but all of the things sounded pretty nasty. Well, she maybe could handle the fever, but that was something that she also could not picture using in Snape's class. Excuse me, Professor, but I'm burning up with fever. Could you kiss my forehead and see what I mean? Yeah. That would be great. She kept her thoughts to herself, though. She would do what she had to do. That was how it had to be.

Breakfast looked really good this morning and Cassie served herself a generous portion of eggs as the platter came by her. She also had two goblets of pumpkin juice. She knew that the walk across the grounds later would be cold and wet and she wanted to avoid getting sick for real. After all, if she felt miserable, what would be the fun of staying in bed?

Owl post arrived a few minutes later and she watched with interest as the various owls dropped packages, letters, newspapers, and other assorted items onto the tables. She smiled as Hermione exclaimed with pleasure over a package that came from her parents. "Oh, I thought they'd forgotten. This is great." It seemed to be some sort of magazine. She was going to ask for a closer look, but just then an envelope bearing the name of Pia Spencer fell in front of her plate, narrowly missing her goblet of juice. She smiled as she recognized the handwriting.

George.

And she was awfully glad that she had decided to come down to breakfast after all. She wanted to rip it open right away but forced herself to act nonchalant as she picked it up. Ginny winked at her and started talking to Harry, effectively drawing his attention away from the letter and onto his girlfriend. She tucked it into the pocket of her robes. She would read it in a minute when she was back in her room, in as much privacy as she could hope to get around here. It seemed to take forever for everyone to finish their meals. Finally, though, the three 7th year students stood and picked up their book bags. "We'll see you at lunch, okay?"

"Yeah. Good luck in Herbology, Pia." Hermione smiled broadly. "Don't let any plants get too frisky."

"Very funny, Hermione. Very funny." She and Ginny climbed the stairs, Cassie leading the way and hurrying up faster than she usually did.

"Calm down, Pia. We've got more than an hour before we need to be in class. I know you're excited for Herbology, but . . . we've got plenty of time."

"Ha. Ha. Boy, everyone's a comedian today."

"He must have written you back the second he got your last letter." Cassie nodded. She hadn't realized how anxious she was to hear from George until she had actually seen the letter. Now that it was here she could hardly stand the wait until she could open it and read what he had to say. She hoped it was a nice long one that she could enjoy for a long time.

When they got up to their room, it was empty as expected. The other girls apparently all had early classes. They still had to shower and do their hair as well as get dressed in their regular uniforms instead of the jeans and sweaters they had both thrown on for breakfast. But, if necessary, she could get all that done in 30 minutes. So that left her plenty of time to savor this letter. She climbed up onto her bed, kicking off her shoes and sliding, fully dressed, into her covers. She squished her pillow into a back rest and made herself comfortable. Only then, did she dare open the seal on the parchment and unroll the letter. It was long. Nice and long. At least three sheets. And the writing was fairly small. Ginny laughed.

"He didn't even bother to send me or Ron notes to make it look less noticeable that you got a letter from him."

"Uh, huh."

"That's kind of risky, don't you think?"

"Uh, huh." Cassie was trying to concentrate on her letter but Ginny seemed determined to have a full-blown conversation.

"Do you want me to be quiet?"

"Uh, huh. Oh, I mean, well . . ." She glanced up for the first time, stricken that she may have hurt Ginny's feelings.

"I'm just teasing you. I'll shut up. Enjoy." Ginny pulled a book off her night stand and proceeded to bury her head in it, which left Cassie with nothing to do or say but read George's letter and she smiled as she was finally able to read it.

Dear Pia,

Thanks so much for your letter. Would you believe me if I told you that I read it immediately? I love hearing from you. Fred was teasing me about it because I even let my breakfast burn this morning as I was paying attention to it rather than my toast. Mum wasn't too happy because I made a lot of smoke and mess, but Fred was nice enough to clean it up for me. He knew I was thinking about you. I miss you so much - it doesn't make sense that I miss you like this because we didn't really see each other that much before. But at least I knew you were nearby. Now you're very far away and I keep thinking about you and wondering if you're all right.

I got a copy of Ginny's timetable from Mum. Dad said you're in all of her classes. So I know where you are all the time and I know what you're probably studying. For example, if this letter reaches you on Tuesday morning like it should, you have Herbology at 10. Then after lunch you have Potions with Snape. So, at 10 I will think about you and wonder if Sprout is giving you a bad time and imagine you standing with your arms up to the elbows in dragon dung fertilizer and I just will get all misty-eyed and romantic. Then as I eat lunch I will think about what the house-elves made for you to eat and wonder if you like it. Then, I'll send good thoughts your direction when I know that you're in class with Snape and wonder if he looks at you and thinks you are pretty or if he just takes points from you because you're clever and won't kowtow to him.

Fred says I'm getting too wrapped up in you but I don't care what he says. He's just jealous because you like me and not him (well, not in the same way) and his girlfriend told him two weeks ago to put one of our wet-start fireworks in his mouth. And she didn't suggest that this would improve his kissing. I told him that we would have to come see you this Saturday under the cover of doing some supply shopping. I don't suppose anyone will believe us but I don't care about that either. Saturday seems like a month away when I am writing this letter on Monday. You will get this on Tuesday and I am praying that you write me back again that very day, maybe before Astronomy at midnight (see - I know your schedule) which means I will get it on Wednesday and Saturday will still be too far away. Tell Ginny that I will be at the Three Broomsticks at 10 on Saturday. Then tell her that she will have to find something to occupy Harry and Ron and Hermione because I want to spend time with you, alone. A lot of time. We have a lot of time to make up for.

It is so frustrating to be here without you when you are there without me. I've threatened to come up and visit you several times and you've only been there for a few days. I just keep thinking about you. I could come up and pretend I was just there for a visit, couldn't I? My dad told me in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to do this. He won't really tell me why, just that it's too dangerous for you. Since I'd rather die than see you get hurt, I've decided that I can wait until Saturday, maybe. How many days is that? Five days. That's 120 hours, Pia. AAAH!

You're going to let me kiss you, aren't you? Please? If we're alone? I couldn't bear to see you without holding you and kissing you. Make sure to tell Ginny that they'll have to keep themselves busy for a very long time.

Actually, I wanted to ask you if there was any chance that you could spend Saturday night with me. Well, Saturday evening and night. I mean, go out with me on Saturday night. I could have you back at school by midnight or so. There's some fancy to-do at the Ministry and we're supposed to bring a date and I just can't stand the thought of being with anyone but you. Please? I would buy you a dress on Saturday if you don't have a fancy dress with you. We could use a port-key so your dress wouldn't get dirty and then we could dance. I would love to dance with you. I'm pretty decent - well, compared to Fred. You have to get out of the way when Fred dances. Then when we were done we could floo back to Hogsmeade and I'd walk you home. Ask Remus. He likes you, I know. And he likes me, too. Maybe he'd let you come with me.

Who am I kidding? I'm sure that's not going to happen . . . but you could still ask couldn't you? If you can't come I probably won't go at all. Dad and Mum are going and I thought it would be fun to go with them. Fred is going without a date unless he can find someone else to take who does not want to insert firecrackers into his various bodily orifices. But he has to because he doesn't have a girlfriend. But I do. I think. I hope.

Okay, this letter is extremely pitiful. I sound like a whiny little kid. I feel whiny though. I want see you again. The last time was too strange and short. I hardly even got to say hello to you and then you were gone and having you practically pulled out of my arms did not leave me with the most satisfied feeling.

I'm going to close this letter now before I break down and start begging you to let me see you sooner than Saturday. I'm supposed to be the older one of the two of us, remember?

Hey, if you want to think of me like I'm thinking of you . . . you just can know that I'm probably standing somewhere staring into space imagining what you are doing. Okay?

Hugs, and lots and lots of kisses,

George

Cassie finished the letter and stared at it for a very long time. So many thoughts were racing through her mind that she didn't even know how to start organizing them.

The first thought was that he had not been careful with this letter. If it had been intercepted, the charade about their being cousins would have been shot literally to hell. This was not a cousin-y sort of letter. This was a letter full of . . . kissing and hugging and dancing.

And that led to her second thought, which was that he wanted to kiss her and hug her and hold her and she closed her eyes. She wanted that, too, more than anything in the world.

Which led immediately to her third thought which was that she was going to be seeing him on Saturday which was remarkably soon and unbelievably far away. Saturday. And he wanted to take her out on a date. To a party. Of course, that was not going to happen. There was no chance of it. She actually thought it was pretty amazing that she was even getting to go to Hogsmeade because it was sort of risky. But so far, no one had told her she couldn't go. And she didn't want to ask. But that was beside the point. She knew she couldn't even ask Remus about Saturday night. Too bad. Because being held by George and dancing sounded heavenly.

"Well, what did he have to say?" Cassie roused herself from her thoughts to look at Ginny.

"I think he forgot we were supposed to be cousins."

"What?"

"His letter. No cousins." She reluctantly handed over the letter. She was a little embarrassed about how effusive he had been in his obvious desire to see her again and she also didn't want Ginny to be mad at her brother. But she felt like Ginny deserved to know what was going on. She crawled out of her bed as Ginny took the letter and started skimming it quickly. She dug her toiletries out of her trunk and then laid out the uniform she was going to wear today. She had tried, sincerely tried, to fall in love with a nice normal Muggle boy. Someone who wouldn't write to her about using a port-key or having her arms up to the elbows in dragon dung fertilizer. But despite her best efforts, her heart for the moment was firmly in the grasp of a full-blooded wizard. And one who didn't even know that she was a Muggle. That was another issue that she was going to have to deal with. She was going to have to tell him the truth when she saw him. Even if she had to force him to stand still and listen to her. Then, he may give her back the pieces of her heart and say good riddance. Well, that was the price she would have to pay for deceiving him all this time. It wasn't his fault she hadn't found the courage to do it earlier, but he would be paying the price, too.

"I'm going to kill him!" As she suspected, Ginny was mad.

"Don't be mad . . ."

"What are you talking about, Pia? He could be endangering your life! And the life of your entire family! Not to mention all the other people that could be affected by this . . . plot, meeting, whatever. Don't defend him. He's got to get a grip on his hormones! If Dad had seen this letter . . . If anyone had seen this letter, he would have been skinned alive. You could have already been taken by Death Eaters. It's pure luck that it wasn't intercepted. Who knows what sort of wizards are out looking for you? What an idiot!"

"He's not an idiot."

"Don't let your obvious crush on my brother blind you to his stupidity, Pia. I don't want you to write him back. I'll write him back and I'll put the fear of God into him. I'll also tell him that you don't like him that way anymore. Maybe I can tell him that you and Neville have started dating or something. Or that Caden guy from Slytherin. At least he'd get the idea."

Cassie stared at Ginny with wide eyes. She hardly recognized the red-haired hellion who was stomping around their dorm room waving the parchment that had so many sweet words on it like it was about to explode. "Don't you dare tell him any such thing! Please!"

"You'll have to then. In no uncertain terms. I mean it."

"No. I won't do it. I like him. Maybe even love him. And I won't do that. I'll remind him about the cousin thing."

"You can't see him on Saturday." Cassie's chin went up a fraction.

"So . . . I suppose if the situation were different. . . . If it was you here and Harry there, you would just be able to ignore him and not see him? Is that what you're telling me?"

"Don't bring me and Harry into this, Pia. We've known each other for years. Not a few months. And I love him. And he loves me."

"Well, George thinks he loves me. And I know how I feel about him. And I want to see him on Saturday."

Ginny stared at Cassie for a long minute. "We'd better get ready or we're going to be late for Herbology. Don't write him back until we decide what you can tell him."

"We? What we?"

"The four of us, you know."

"No. Absolutely not. I do not want you mentioning one single thing to anyone else. Not Harry, not Ron, and not Hermione."

"But . . ."

"No. Look. He'll probably break up with me on Saturday anyway so then it becomes a moot point, okay. I'll listen to your advice to a certain point. But that's all I'll promise to do. I'll wait until later before I write him. But I'll do the writing. And I'll see him on Saturday and then it will all be over, okay?"

"I'm sorry, Pia. I . . . I'm sorry that you don't think it could work out. He obviously really likes you. I mean if he can think romantic thoughts about you and dragon dung fertilizer . . . it must be love." The two girls laughed a little bit, but Cassie at least, wasn't really amused.

"Come on. We better get ready for class. No use losing points from this class. There'll be enough of that in Potions."