Chapter 7- Checking in at the Leaky Cauldron
It was weird. Harry thought that if he apologized to Sirius, he'd be able to move on a little bit more. But now that he head, he couldn't think about anything besides that conversation. For a week and a half, all he thought about was the conversation. He didn't care what was going on in the Order, he didn't care about clearing the house of rats and who knows what else, all he could think about was what could Sirius possibly know that was important? Was it information about Voldemort? How did he know? Why couldn't he tell Harry that night?
Harry was poking his potatoes with his fork. It was his last night at Grimmauld Place for the summer. The next morning they were going to Diagon Alley for school supplies. They would spend the remaining few days of summer at the Leaky Cauldron before leaving for platform 9 ¾.
Everybody was telling Cassie everything they could about Hogwarts. They told her about the teachers and the grounds and the Quidditch Cup and all kinds of things. Harry would've joined in too, but he wasn't in the mood.
After dinner he and Ron attempted to pack all of their things. It was taking a while seeing as everything was scattered all over the room and they weren't exactly the neatest packers. After 20 minutes they were tired and took a break. Cassie and Hermione came in and glanced around the room at the mess.
"Did a bomb go off in here or something?" Hermione asked sternly.
"Ha ha," Ron replied. "I supposed you're all packed then?"
"I've been done for a while now. It was so much easier with Cassie helping me."
"Think you can give us a hand then?"
"Sure, I think," said Cassie. She walked around the room, searching for the items they would need for school. "It's not too big of a job."
Her eyes started glowing green again. Large quantities of clothes folded themselves and landed neatly in the trunk. Quills, parchment and books flew across the room and arranged themselves neatly in their trunks. Harry had to duck from all the flying objects. Once the trunks were packed they snapped shut. Cassie's eyes returned to normal and she took a look at the room again.
"That was brilliant," said Ron in amazement.
"Watch out for my head next time though," Harry said as he stood up from behind the bed.
The next morning, everyone gathered their belongings and boarded the Knight Bus. After a half an hour of bouncing and swaying on the bus, they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry was looking over his school supply list that received a few days ago.
"Hurry up Harry," Ron called from the doorway, "We're going school shopping."
After a long afternoon of shopping, Harry and his friends stopped for sundaes at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. They walked around the alley looking at all of the magical knick-knacks. They also stopped at the pet store to look at some of the cats (Cassie loved cats) and to pick up some owl treats (the only thing that could calm Pig down).
They returned to the Leaky Cauldron, had an early dinner and gathered in the room that Hermione, Ginny, and Cassie were sharing, trying to get through their homework before it was too late. Cassie didn't have as much work to do because she was transferring schools, but Dumbledore still wanted to make sure she knew the material that could possibly be on the N.E.W.T.s.
"State the importance of cutting mandrake root into equal portions when using it in a Liquidocia Potion," Ron read off his piece of parchment. "Think you can find that one?"
"Should be in here somewhere," Cassie said, flipping through pages in a book. She began flipping the pages rapidly with her mind. The book created wind as it turned and turned finally coming to a halt about 200 pages later. "Found it! Something about if you cut it up too misshapen it'll clash with the eye of newt and cause a global melt down if not taken care of soon enough."
There was a knock at the door. Everybody looked around at each other, wondering who could want to find any of them. Finally Ron got up and walked to the door, he cracked it open just wide enough for his head to fit through. "What?" He said disgustedly.
"Is Cassandra here?" The voice said on the other side of the door.
"Yeah."
"Can I see her?" The voice said impatiently.
Ron turned to rest of them. "Cassie, its Malfoy."
Cassie got up, everybody was staring at her. She looked at them once more before entering the hallway, closing the door behind her. Harry could here their muffled voices through the door.
"What's he doing talking to her again?" Ron said grumpily as he sat back down in front of his Potions work.
"He likes her," said Hermione with a bored tone as she flipped through her copy of "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six."
"What?" Ron and Harry said in unison, completely shocked.
"Well isn't it obvious? You told me she was talking to him on the Knight Bus, and then didn't you seem him look at her at Florean's parlor? And when he asked for her just now, he didn't call you Weasley or anything."
"He was at the parlor?!? But...but...but he's got Pansy!" Ron exclaimed.
"You think those two would last? Think about it. Malfoy walks around like he's kind of the place. You think he'd settle for somebody like pug-face Pansy? Then take a look at Cassie. Compare the two and pretend your Malfoy."
Ron thought it over for a second. "Well if I'm Malfoy I'd wanna know what house she's in first."
Hermione gave him a reproachful look. "What could she see in him anyway?" Ron mumbled as he began scratching at his Potions work again.
"Well she probably understands him or something. And I don't know about you guys but I don't think Draco's ever had somebody like that in his life."
"She's not in his life! They barely know each other! Besides, she's too smart to fall for him and he's probably using her for something. But she'll know...she'll read his mind."
"Fine, don't believe me," said Hermione returning to her book, "You can ask her when she gets back if you really want to confirm."
Ron scoffed. Harry and Ginny sat in silence during the whole conversation, their eyes flowing back and forth between Ron and Hermione. When it looked like the argument was over all Harry and Ginny could do was stare at each other. They had never heard anything so odd.
'How?' Harry thought. 'How could somebody like Cassandra fall for somebody like Malfoy?'
'It's not official yet,' a little voice in his head said.
'Did you hear Hermione at all? It makes perfect sense to me but Ron's just stubborn because he loves her.'
For nearly an hour the only sound in the room was the scratching of quills and the sound of pages turning. Ron would occasionally glance at the door, and glare at it for a minute before focusing on his work again. Harry heard faint giggling in the hallway. Harry, Ron and Ginny stopped their work and strained to listen to the conversation going on out in the hall, Hermione still absorbed in her book. Ron crept quietly towards the door, his ear pressed against in, Harry and Ginny imitating his actions.
"So I'll see you later then." Cassie's voice came from the opposite side of the door.
"Yeah, can't wait," Malfoy whispered.
There was a pause.
"Bye," Cassie said. She began to open the door, knocking down Ron, Harry, and Ginny as she entered the room. "Could you be listening any closer?"
Ron got up and dusted himself off. "Where were you for an hour?"
"I went for a walk with Draco," Cassie said casually.
"Why?"
"Because he wanted to see me."
"I think he saw you well enough at Florean's..." Ron muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Ron said defensively. "What do you see in him anyway?"
"I see a lonely guy, who's hard to understand, who's been through a lot, who's cute."
Ron chuckled. "You forgot to mention he's an obnoxious, know-it-all, teacher's pet, evil dark wizard."
"What makes you say he's a dark wizard?" Cassie asked sternly.
"His father was a Death Eater, his whole family's been in Slytherin, he thinks all people who aren't purebloods are scum..."
"One, his father has nothing to do with him, two, his house doesn't reflect exactly who he is, and three, and he doesn't think they're all scum."
"And you know all this...how?" Ron asked.
"Hey Ron," she whispered, "I have a secret."
Ron looked at her oddly. "I can read minds," she finished. "Isn't that weird?"
Ron rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that."
"Why are you so against this anyway?"
"Because I don't want you going out with somebody who's possibly violent, evil, and who could end up hurting you!"
"Thanks for the concern but I'm never going to go out with a person like that."
"So why'd you tell Malfoy you'd see him again?"
"Because I don't think he fits that description," she said sternly.
Harry had never seen anything like this. Usually Ron only had these kinds of arguments with Hermione (who was still engrossed in her book). Not only that, but he had never seen two people argue over Malfoy like this. It was an awkward site. Ginny was still staring.
"Anybody gonna back me up here?" Ron turned to the rest of them. They all looked away, averting their eyes.
"So I'm the only one here who doesn't like Malfoy now?"
"That's not true Ron," Harry said, finally speaking up, "I don't think any of us really like Malfoy but if he likes Cassie and they wanna see each other, we can't really stop that."
"Thank you," Cassie nodded. Ron scoffed and sat back down to do his potions work again, not saying another word on the subject.
