A/N: SUDDEN CHRISTMASSY MOOD ON THE 25TH OF JULY. Silver Bells...Silver Bells...It's Christmas time...in the city...Ring-a-ling...Hear them ring...Soon it will be Christmas day!
Cassie pranced down the path, her cheeks and nose aglow with redness and her breath steaming in the air as the white fluff danced down from the sky. It landed on her dark hair and onto her bright red hat and on her black robed shoulders. She smiled happily and twirled in a circle, her mitten-covered hands reaching to the sky.
A good few inches already lie upon the ground, and her heavy-set boots made tiny crunching noises as she danced forwards. She was all alone on the road, the winter wonderland enveloping her in its chilly white magic as the naked trees all around her shivered in a slight cold breeze.
She laughed as she tripped over a root hidden beneath the snow, falling onto her back in a flurry of disturbed flakes. She continued to giggle to herself as she began to swish her arms and legs back and forth, creating a pretty angel in the snow. Carefully, as to not ruin her masterpiece, she lifted her body from the snow. She turned and bent to her soaked knees to look at it, adding long, beautiful hair to the girls head with her finger. She then rose back onto her feet and skipped off, sliding sideways through the slippery frozen white.
After awhile of walking, she finally reached her destination.
The little village of Hogsmeade looked like the sort of painted village you'd find on Christmas cards. The little roves were covered in white, the children played with snowballs and a horse-and-sleigh was trotting down the road, jingling on its harness were dozens of silver bells. Cassie grinned and made her way to Honeydukes, her nose catching scent of the many sweets and chocolates that wafted through the air.
She entered the warm, crowded shop and took off her mittens, placing them in the pocket of her long, thick black robes. With her other hand she reached into the opposite pocket, bringing out a few shiny coins.
She walked about the store, wondering about which items to buy and selecting a few. Nearly all were of the chocolate variety. She got joined the rather long line excitedly, waiting patiently to sink her teeth into the thick, sugary sweetness. When she reached the counter, she flunked down her choices onto the hard surface and a plump kind-faced witch charged her three sickles and two knuts with a smile on her face.
She paid for the chocolate and left the shop, heading directly for the Three Broomsticks, thoughts of warm butterbeer and melted sweets on her mind. The bar was crowded, as per usual, but seemed a little less so than Honeydukes as everyone was seated at a table, talking and drinking with friends. Since it was a Hogsmeade day for the Hogwarts students, the bar was filled with them all escaping the cold. A few old warlocks sat at the back, discussing something with serious looks on their faces, and two little witches sat at the bar, talking to the largely pregnant barmaid with excited and happy faces.
Cassie sat down at one of the only free tables, catching the barmaid's eye. The little barmaid walked over to her, placing a fond hand on her large, round belly. She smiled when she reached Cassie.
"You'll be having a butterbeer, I presume?" she inquired, gesturing to her red cheeks.
"Yes, please", Cassie said enthusiastically, nodding her head.
The barmaid smiled and Cassie suddenly felt the urge to feel the woman's belly.
When Cassie had been small, she'd been fascinated by the expecting. When her aunt had become pregnant, she'd remembered putting her hands to her rounded belly in wonder, pulling up an ear to listen and closing her eyes pretending she could hear the baby talking to her.
The woman caught her look and beamed brighter, offering her to feel her belly.
Cassie immediately rose and placed her tiny hands onto her abdomen, the feeling of happiness and wonder coming over her once again. Suddenly, beneath her fingers, she felt a tiny bump!
Cassie gasped in delight as the baby kicked again, and the woman giggled, her sunny smile widening.
She sat down after that, thanking the woman kindly.
"I needed that", Cassie said contentedly.
"I know" said the woman, "It cheers you right up, doesn't it?"
Cassie agreed, and the woman went back to work.
She placed the chocolate on her tongue, and took a sip of the warm, sweet butterbeer. The butterbeer melted the chocolate right there on her tongue, and Cassie swallowed slowly her eyes closed in pleasure. She looked into the Honeydukes paper bag once more, and pulled out the last piece of chocolate, holding it between her fingers lovingly.
It was at that moment, which someone decided to sit at her table.
She looked up at the intruder that had dared spoil the moment between her and her precious chocolate, and glared at the person who raised an eyebrow back.
"Why", she asked him, "Must you ruin the best moments of my life?"
He gave a non-committal shrug.
"The bar's so full and you were so lonely here, sitting all by yourself at the back with your two-seater table. Were you not able to secure a date, or did your friends just abandon you?"
"I'm not alone! I've got mister Chocolate to keep me company!" she said defensively, feeling sore at his jab.
"So you've got no friends or date, so you turn to food. Poor thing" he gave her a mock-sympathetic look.
She scowled something she did often with Tom around.
"I've got friends! She just has a really bad cold..." she mumbled, having the irksome feeling of knowing he was right. Kelly was off with one of her other friends buying things at Zonko's Joke Shop. She'd seen them when she'd sprinted to the Three Broomsticks. It didn't bother Cassie that she hadn't invited her, it just bothered her that she said she'd had a bad cold. And a date...Well, Cassie hadn't been able to secure a date since first year.
"I see", he said simply, and Cassie got a sinking feeling that he'd seen Kelly at Zonko's as well.
The pregnant barmaid, whose name Cassie had found out was Penny, came to their table again. She asked her if she wanted a re-fill, to which Cassie agreed full-heartedly. Then she turned to Tom.
"Want anything, dear?" Penny asked with a smile.
He shook his head no, a dark look crossing his face.
Cassie looked at his shabby robes and in a sudden rush she asked for another butterbeer. This one wasn't for her, but was for him.
Penny the barmaid came back with her refilled butterbeer and the second butterbeer. Cassie paid for them, tipping her largely, then turned to Tom as Penny walked away.
She pushed the drink over to him.
He stared at her as though she'd grown two heads.
"Why'd you just waste your money like that? I'm not going to drink it, you didn't have to buy it for me."
She sighed and pushed the drink further towards him.
"Oh, just drink it, will you? Make me feel better about "wasting my money"..."
He gave her a hard look, then with his lips pursed, her picked up the drink and sipped it.
Once their bellies were full of the warm liquid, they put their coats back on and headed outdoors.
Outside, the light snow had decided to become a full-fledges blizzard, the snow pounding down in fast-moving flakes, carried by an icy, strong wind. Cassie shivered and put on her mittens, wrapping her cloak tighter around her body. Tom fastened up his own long, trench-coat like cloak and together they bent their heads to the storm, walking through at least a foot-and-a-half of snow.
The wind roared around them, and once they left the safety of light from the houses, it became increasingly harder to see. They stayed very close together, trudging through the snow to get to the carriages. Once they finally got there, they climbed in the nearest one, closing the door with a snap. No one else was waiting, so the thestral pulling the carriage set off.
Inside Cassie shook the snow off, panting and shivering. The skin-tight pants beneath her long swing-skirt were soaked through, and her hat and mittens were too. She pulled everything tighter still to her body, her toes aching with cold.
Tom sat beside her, imitating her plea for warmth, only a little less desperately.
The ride to Hogwarts was a long one, the blizzard pounding onto the roads and making it difficult to maneuver. Cassie began to feel extremely drowsy, her head lolling onto Tom's shoulder on multiple occasions before she caught herself and lifted her head again. Tom's head was hanging downwards, his eyes closed, but she knew he wasn't sleeping. After a while, she couldn't be bothered catching herself and her head lolled onto his shoulder. She fell asleep almost instantly, her mouth hanging open in a positively fetching manner.
Tom lifted his head when the carriage stopped, turning to face the weight that rested on his shoulder. He raised his eyebrow when he saw her, the corners of his mouth twisting upwards slightly in amusement.
Her mouth hung open and her eyebrows lilted upwards in a carefree expression, snoring softly. It was quite cute, really but he cringed slightly as he saw a drop of drool threatening to fall onto his coat.
He lifted a hand and shook her shoulder gently, saying her name softly and coaxing her out of her sleep.
She lifted her head with a bewildered expression, rubbing her eyes with tiny balled fists and yawning.
"We're here" he informed her bluntly.
She muttered a little "Mhmm" and they stepped into the blizzard, hunching their heads against the wind again.
Inside the common room it was warm, and Cassie hastened to run up the stairs of the girls dorms to get out of her wet clothes, thanking Tom with a yell as she ran up round the corner.
After her warmed Daily Banana pyjamas were on her body, she went back downstairs checking the time to find it was an hour before curfew, enough time to get a warm cocoa at the kitchens, and to visit Daisy. She pulled on a pair of beat-up pink slippers and climbed out of the common room door.
Over the past week since meeting her, she'd begun to really take a shine to little Daisy. She was sweet and mild-tempered, and knew a surprising amount about the world for being so young. She was a wonderful conversation, and was quite a brave little house elf. She wasn't even afraid of calling Cassie by her first name, which she thought was very daring for a house elf. House elves usually didn't do such things, and when Daisy had first done it, the other house elves around her had tittered and disapproved.
She entered the kitchen, and Daisy beamed and called out to her.
The house elves were used to her now, and they knew that she liked to either serve herself or let Daisy serve her, so the rest left her alone.
She sat down at the house table that was nearest the station where Daisy was working, and the elf brought her an éclair and a steaming mug of cocoa, and they chatted as Daisy washed dishes, talking about trivial things and giggling about jokes.
At the chiming of a clock, Cassie burst upwards and apologized for having to leave. It was curfew and she really didn't want another detention.
She sprinted through the halls, diving behind statues and into closets when necessary until she entered the Slytherin common room, having successfully avoided detention.
Inside it was dark, the only light coming from the red burning fire in the grate, casting a warm glow on all the dark furniture and onto the face of the room's only occupant.
At the sound of the door opening and closing, Tom turned his head to look at her and she smiled slightly, waving. She made her way over to where he sat on the couch in front of the fire, and sat on the rug, her back settling against the seat of the couch.
He turned back to the fire, drinking something from a mug.
Cassie couldn't help but remark that he look so much for friendly and (she gagged mentally to think it) handsome in the warm glow of a fire. For lack of something to do, she studied his face, taking note of every detail.
"Checking me out again?" he asked her.
She turned crimson, but the firelight made it impossible to tell. She furrowed her brow angrily.
"No, I'm just taking in the details of your face. For example, did you know that the bridge of your nose sticks up a tiny bit? My dad used to say that every detail in a person's face can tell you everything about them."
He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head towards her, interested.
"Really?"
"If you study hard enough...But I was never good at that kind of thing...My Father was the one who was good at that. He could look at you and tell you your likes, dislikes and life story" she sighed slightly, remembering, "He was a wood-worker. He used to carve me little figurines and tell me their stories..." she trailed off, refusing to tear up in remembering that she no longer had her figurine.
Tom was silent for a long time.
"What's it like, having parents?" he asked bluntly.
She suddenly remembered he had none, and lived in an orphanage. She felt a slight pang of guilt run through her at mentioning hers, but she answered him none the less.
"Well, it's like having someone that you know will always love you, and knowing you could always turn to them for help on anything."
He inclined his head, thinking.
"Hm...Well, It's getting late. I'm off to bed" he said quietly.
She nodded and rose, walking to the girls dormitory stairs and turning.
"Thanks Tom" she said simply, and walked up the stairs.
A/N: Righto then, you lot. That's the ninth chapter down!Review pleaso cheeso. By the way, in the story at this point in time, it's about the fourteenth of December.