Chapter 34

Staring determinedly, Harry willed the die to change. It didn't.

"One, rua, toru, four, you have to slide down the snake!" Cassie crowed, counting half in English and half in Maori. Harry frowned. He was losing to his daughter.

They'd been playing Snakes and Ladders for nearly an hour, ever since Draco had dropped her off. Working on curriculum for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, Draco needed some time to himself. Harry was willing to take Cassie off his hands for a few hours. It would be fun, he thought.

Draco thanked him quickly before disappearing in the direction of the Potion's room. He'd wanted Snape's opinion on a few points before submitting his class schedule to Dumbledore.

Harry thought Draco didn't need Snape's help, considering all the guidance he'd had in New Zealand on the subject. Unfortunately putting together a class plan was more difficult than Harry realized. In that case he could understand why Draco had gone to see Snape, although, personally he'd have seen McGonagall.

"My turn!" Cassie reached for the die and rolled a two. It only got her a little further, but she was still ahead of him.

Spending quality time with Cassie was turning into a long losing streak though. Harry couldn't believe he hadn't won one round yet. Luck was not on his side and he silently wished he'd taken up Heather's offer to have her sit in. Just to keep him company, she'd said. She certainly knew Cassie better than he did, which made him regret not following the little voice that wanted him to look for Draco years ago. If he'd done so, he would have a better idea of who she was. What all her likes and dislikes were. Did she take after him at all? Was she afraid of spiders? Was she always this good at Snakes and Ladders or was it just today? He couldn't turn back time, but he could try to make up for it by spending being with her now.

Other than the week Draco had left for New Zealand, Harry hadn't been alone with Cassie. Normally Heather or Draco was there, to keep an eye on them. They knew her habits and knew when she was ready for naps or was getting hungry. In that week, he'd learned a little, but not enough to judge correctly when the cranky whine was because she was tired or just being difficult. If he lived with her it would be different, but right now he had his own living space. At some point he thought he'd want to make that step to living with Draco, Cassie and Heather, but he wasn't ready yet. Everything was still too new.

"Papa Harry, it's your turn." Cassie nudged him. Harry took up the die and shook them in his hand. Letting them go he watched them bounce across the board. Six. He grinned. He may not lose this round after all. It was a bit embarrassing losing seven rounds to your own child, especially when that child was only five.

"One, two, three, four, five, six. Oh, you're almost there," Cassie said, pouting slightly.

"Looks like I might win this time," he told her.

"You should win one, sometime," she replied snatching up the die and rolling a three. "Ha, caught up to you!"

"Not for long." Harry rolled another six, which sent him up a ladder and right down a snake to another part of the board, which meant he only had to roll a three or higher to win the game. Grinning, he waited for Cassie to roll.

A knock at the door coincided with Cassie's toss. The die read one and Harry hopped up out of his chair to answer the knock.

"Ron. Hi, come in. I'm playing Snakes and Ladders with Cassie." Harry greeted his friend.

"Thanks. I just wanted to see how you were doing before I leave tomorrow. Natalie and I are going to the Burrow to see Mum and Dad," he said standing there. "Snakes and Ladders you say, I haven't played that in years. The snakes bit me a couple times when I was little. Fred and George used to bang their pieces on the snakes' head then stick my hand on the board when they got mad. Charlie rescued me a couple times when they angered the one mildly poisonous one. I heard they finally took that one off the game."

Harry's eyes widened.

"That must be a type that only wizards have," he said slowly thanking Merlin that he'd never seen that board. "Cassie and I are playing the nice safe Muggle version. No enchanted board."

"Oh, really? It's Muggle?" Ron was already walking in and nosing his way over to where Harry and Cassie had been playing.

"I win!" Cassie announced.

"Hey, you skipped my turn," Harry protested closing the door and hurrying back over.

"You weren't here, so I rolled for you. You got a one. Then I rolled and got an eight," Cassie explained, collecting the pieces in preparation for the next round.

"That's a six sided die, there is no eight," Harry pointed out. "Cassie..."

The little girl grinned mischievously and turned her attention to Ron.

"Want to play with us Uncle Ron?"

"Sure," Ron said pulling out a chair and sitting in it. He leaned on the table and stared at the board. "So the snakes don't move?"

"No, they're part of the board." Cassie gave him a weird look.

"Not at all."

She shook her head.

"So this is a Muggle version with no moving snakes." Ron touched a black snake and lifted his finger waiting for the creature to move. The two dimensional snake remained two dimensional and stayed in place. "A bit boring, but certainly a lot safer than what I used to play."

Harry pulled out the third chair at the table while she happily got Ron a game piece and they began anew. Taking Harry's old seat Ron picked up the die and rolled. They played for a while until Natalie came looking for her husband. Ron and Harry enticed her to join the game. After several rounds, all of which Cassie won; Natalie suggested they move onto another game. Finding a deck of cards, they began a match of Go Fish. They hadn't had fun like this in a while, just playing and talking. Cassie was having a great time winning all the cards and watching the adults grumble about losing. It was just like when she used to spend time with Fa'avahs. Everyone laughed and nobody talked about Death Eaters or Voldemort. The only people missing were Draco and Heather. Cassie wished they were both there.

An hour later Draco and Snape walked down the corridor to the teacher's apartments.

"I'm going to check on Cassie before we go looking for Dumbledore," Draco explained. Snape snorted.

"He has a bad habit of disappearing when I want to talk to him about Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions or me teaching Dark Arts," Snape muttered letting Draco knock on the door. "Then reappearing when I'm about to discipline one of his favorites."

Draco nodded, more in sympathy with Snape than experience. Although, he did remember that Dumbledore favoring the Gryffindor house when Harry was involved. He needed to let it go, he told himself, he and Harry had already talked about this.

The door opened. The sound of Natalie laughing spilled out into the hallway.

"Hi, are you done already?" Harry asked just as someone called 'go fish'. It sounded like Ron.

"Actually, Professor Snape and I are trying to locate Dumbledore. I stopped by to check on Cassie, she's not giving you any problems?"

"No, other than a few instances of her rolling an eight on a six sided die."

Draco sighed, knowing that trick all to well. Suddenly there was an uproar of laughter, causing him to give Harry a quizzical look.

"Who is in there with you?"

"Well, Ron and Natalie stopped by," Harry began as someone started accusing Ron of holding cards.

"Is that McGonagall?" Draco inquired looking past Harry in an attempt to count how many people there were.

"Yes, and Percy and..." Dumbledore declaring that they should redeel suddenly cut him off. Harry glanced over his shoulder as Ron began protesting that he hadn't cheated.

"No wonder we can't find him." Snape growled from behind Draco. "He's hiding with Potter."

Fixing a defensive glare in Snape's direction, Harry tried to remain neutral. Dumbledore had stopped by all on his own; he wasn't hiding him from anyone.

"Well, I need to talk to Dumbledore, if he can wait a minute." Draco commented stepping inside.

"You're going into a room full of Gryffindors," Snape pointed out trying to keep out of the line of site, lest Dumbledore spot him and invite him to join what ever was going on in there.

Draco gave him a stoic look.

"My daughter is in there and I need to save her before they corrupt her."

"HEY!" Harry protested as Draco sauntered past him. "She's corrupting us!"