AN: Holla everybody! See, I TOLD you it wouldn't be that long until I updated this time! (big smile) – I'm so proud of myself! Only a week apart! No shout outs this time (there aren't many people to give shout outs TO), I'm just getting right along with the chapter!

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Chapter 6: One Mystery Down

A few hours later, around dinner time, Cassandra, Hermione, and Draco were still sitting in the library, poring over new books.

"I can't believe this!" exclaimed Hermione. "Not one of these books has anything about the Carlisus potion in it!" Cassandra laughed quietly in spite of herself. The library rarely failed Hermione.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find something, 'Mione," said Cassandra. Draco said nothing. He was avidly staring at the index of Problematical Potion Predicaments. A silence fell again for a minute until Draco let out a yell of joy, closely followed by an annoyed "Shhh!" from Madame Pince.

"What? Did you find something?" asked Cassandra.

"Yeah, listen," said Draco, and he began reading from the book. "'There is a serious side-effect of a flawless Carlisus Potion: If a set of twins drink from the same potion, the results will become permanent after a two-week period.'" Hermione snapped her fingers.

"That would explain why Parvarti and Padma don't have the same problem! Although they both made the potion, they didn't drink from the same potion!" she said, her eyes alight with understanding.

"I don't see the difference, though…" said Cassandra.

"I think I get it," said Draco. "Although they both may have made a perfect Carlisus Potion, they were prepared at different times and in different cauldrons. They didn't drink it from the same cauldron."

"Oh, I see," said Cassandra. Her stomach gave a sudden rumble of hunger. "I'm hungry, let's go down to dinner. I'm sure Harry and Ron are there, so we can tell them."

"Good idea, I'm a bit hungry, too," said Hermione.

"You mean we can finally get out of this place?" said Draco, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Yes, Draco, we can leave the library," said Cassandra with a laugh, and they all made their way towards the Great Hall.

xXx

Harry and Ron were, as suspected, in the Great Hall.

"You know, I feel kind of bad for not helping them out in the library," said Harry while eating steak and mashed potatoes.

"Don't," said Ron simply, his mouth full of chops. He swallowed and continued. "After all, they've got Hermione, what more could they ask for? She's more than enough help." Cassandra, Hermione, and Draco walked into the Hall just then.

"Speak of the devil…" said Harry with a laugh. Cassandra and Hermione joined them.

"So, did you give up because you were hungry?" said Ron, smiling.

"No actually. We found what we were looking for and left," stated Hermione, ladling soup into a bowl. Harry and Ron both spoke at the same time.

"You did?"

"Really?"

"Yes, Draco found it for us," said Cassandra, who already had chicken on her plate and was cutting it up. Ron, who had been drinking out of his goblet, began coughing and promptly slammed his goblet back down onto the table. After his coughing subsided, he spoke again.

"Draco found it?" he said.

"Yes, is that really a surprise?" said Cassandra, looked offended.

"Well, yeah, I mean…" started Ron, but Cassandra cut him off.

"Just because he acted like a total dolt for five years doesn't mean that he isn't smart, Ron," said Cassandra. Harry, who noted the delicacy of the situation, remained silent. Ron seemed to notice Cassandra's tone of voice, too, and quieted down. There was silence for a minute until Harry spoke.

"So, what did you guys find out?" he asked.

"Not much, but enough to explain it," said Hermione. "Basically, if a set of twins take a perfect Carlisus Potion from the same cauldron, they will be given the permanent ability to read the other's thoughts and feelings."

"Well, that's basically what you knew already, wasn't it?" asked Harry.

"Sort of…we weren't sure if there was just something…wrong…with us," explained Cassandra. "We figured it was best to know for sure."

"Oh," said Harry. There was silence for a while again as everyone tucked into their dinner. Then Cassandra remembered something from earlier that day.

"Hermione…" she said.

"What?"

"I'm not sure if this is a decent piece of information, but…earlier, when Draco and I were coming out of Dumbledore's office, I heard him and Snape talking…and, I mean, I may have just imagined it, but, I really thought I heard the word…prophecy," she finished sheepishly. Hermione's eyes widened, as did Harry's and Ron's.

"You mean you think that dream you had a few weeks ago might have been…true?" said Harry.

"Not true, per say, but I think it might have had some significance," said Cassandra.

"You really should talk to Dumbledore about that," said Ron.

"No," said Cassandra immediately. "He'd just think I was nosing, and he's too busy for stuff like that." In actuality, Cassandra was dying to know if there really was a prophecy about her, but she just couldn't shake the nagging fact that she might have simply imagined it…that it really was all just a dream. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Hermione and Ron share a significant look, and then glare at Harry as if it was his fault.

xXx

Cassandra was not herself the rest of the evening. She sat quietly in the common room staring into the fire, pondering everything that had happened that day, until she finally couldn't take it anymore and stated that she was going up to bed.

She got into her nightclothes and lay in bed, trying to empty her mind so that she could fall asleep, but only succeeded in making her think about her situation even more. What if there really was a prophecy? What if she, Cassandra Elizabeth Malfoy, had been spoken of before she was even born? What if she and Draco weren't just twins…they were the subject of prophecy? What if…

She was fighting black hooded figure without a wand…she couldn't find Draco…

"That prophecy was right!"

A splash…she had jumped into the lake…

She was looking frantically but saw nothing but eerie blackness…something moved beside her…

She couldn't breathe…there was nothing at all…

Cassandra sat bolt upright, breathing heavily, as if she had just recovered from a deathly shock. It had seemed more realistic that time than ever, although it had sped through as if the time had been bewitched. She looked at her bedside clock, which read 2:45. She glanced over at Hermione, who was still sleeping soundly. Good. She didn't want more people telling her she ought to go to Dumbledore. Trying to settle her mind, she lay back down and attempted to go back to sleep.

xXx

The next morning at breakfast, she acted as normal as humanly possible, and did not mention her dream to Hermione, Ron, or even Harry. She went through all her classes normally, and eventually stopped acting and was normal of her own accord. She seemed to have forgotten the problems of her nightmare for the time being. In fact, she forgot so much that Harry had to remind her at the end of their last class that there was Quidditch practice in fifteen minutes.

"Oh right, of course!" she laughed, and followed Harry and Ron down to the changing rooms.

"So, what are we doing this practice, Harry?" asked Cassandra after a few minutes.

"Oh I figured we'd work on some new Chaser formations, and get some practice with Ron and the Beaters," he replied.

"Do you know who we're playing next?" asked Ron.

"I think Ravenclaw. They'll pretty easy, I think," said Harry. "So, let's get going, shall we?" They were now at the changing rooms, and Cassandra noted his quick change in subject. She suspected that he did not want to linger too long on the fact that he would be playing against Cho Chang. Feeling much more cheered for some reason, she followed Harry into the changing rooms.

xXx

Half an hour later, they entire team was out on the field. They were playing a mini game at the moment, just to warm up. When Ginny scored her tenth goal, however, Harry started to get annoyed. He blew his whistle.

"Thompson, Massia, Brown, Calaway, off the field!" he said angrily. "Okay, Ginny, hang back for a minute while I coach Ron." He flew over to Ron, who was hanging his head. "Ron, what is the matter with you? You were fine last practice!"

"Nothing's wrong…I'm just…tired, I suppose," said Ron.

"Well, you need to wake up! If you play this abysmally during our next match we'll be flattened!" said Harry angrily.

"All right Harry, all right…" said Ron. In truth he was wide awake. His mind was just elsewhere…thinking about what Cassandra had told him the day before…thinking about a certain brown haired, brown eyed witch most likely sitting in the common room, doing her homework…

"Okay Ginny, go ahead!" came Harry's shout from the ground. Ginny zoomed toward the goalposts and Ron broke out of his thoughts and tried to pay attention. He managed to block ten of the twenty shots she threw at him.

"Well, that's certainly an improvement," said Harry. "Okay, team, back up in the air. Let's work on catching…"

xXx

Later, at dinner, when Hermione asked how practice was, she got a mixed response.

"It was all right, I guess…" said Harry.

"Great!" from Ginny and Cassandra, and silence from Ron.

"Ron, are you okay?" asked Hermione. Ron started and looked up from his plate.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine…" he said. Hermione looked at him curiously, but did not speak anymore.

"Guys, I'm exhausted," said Cassandra when she had finished dinner. "I'm heading back up to the common room."

"Yeah…yeah, me too," said Ron, and he followed her out of the Hall. However, he waited until they were back into the nearly deserted common room before saying what was on his mind.

"Cassandra, I need to talk to you," said Ron urgently.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked.

"It's about…well…Hermione…" he said.

"Ah, okay. Talk away," said Cassandra.

"You may or may not have guessed that she was the reason I wasn't performing that well today at practice…and I just don't know how to get my mind off of her!"

"Oh, Ron. You're so silly! You're only dwelling on her because you want to dwell on her. If you just tell yourself to pay attention, you should be able to."

"But I tried that! It didn't work!" he protested. Cassandra sighed.

"Okay, Ron. The only solution that I can see is for you to ask her out!" said Cassandra. Ron looked horrified at the very thought. He made a sort of moan of fright.

"Oh good grief, it's not that bad! And I'm going to start working on trying to see if she likes you, okay?"

"All right, thanks, Cass," said Ron, and he got out his homework (rather reluctantly) and began working on it. Cassandra, on the other hand, got out a blank piece of parchment and a quill to write a letter to her adoptive parents.

Dear Mum and Dad,

How are you? I've been fabulous. Look, I know that you guys don't like the fact that I'm learning magic, but, really, it's okay! It's not evil or anything.

I'm also sorry that I haven't written for a few weeks. But I do have good news! We won our first Quidditch match against Slytherin! It went on for nearly two hours, and I did get knocked in the leg with a bludger once, but I'm fine now! Harry caught the Snitch eventually, though it was very, very close. Thankfully, Draco

She stopped there for a moment, her quill suspended over the parchment. She hadn't told her parents who her real family was, and they knew enough about the Harry Potter books to know that she would never, ever, call Draco Malfoy by his first name. Wondering how she was going to explain that to them on Thursday, she scribbled out "Draco" and continued writing.

Malfoy got knocked in the head with a bludger and Harry was able to get the Snitch. Malfoy was in the hospital wing for a few days after that.

Also, you guys are going to get a big surprise on Thanksgiving! But I can't say what it is…you'll just have to wait and see! I have a ton of homework, so I'll leave it here.

I love you both!

Cassandra

Satisfied with the letter, she put it in her bag to send the next morning. Then, staring at her bag as if wishing it would just disappear, she reluctantly opened it and pulled out a Potions essay she had to do on the uses of basilisk venom.

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AN: There you are! All nice and done! 2,103 words. I really wish I could make these darned chapters a bit longer, but when you're going from an outline, that's a tad hard…anyway, review everybody!

xXx SpicySugar xXx