A/N: OH MY GOODNESS! I AM RUNNING THROUGH A FIELD OF PLOT BUNNIES FOR THIS STORY RIGHT NOW! YAY! I'VE DECIDED HOW ITS GOING TO END! KUKUKU. Ahem. Now...To the story! (God knows you've deserved the update; I haven't updated in a dog's age!)
Cassie flipped through the pages of Pride and Prejudice the words echoing loudly in her mind but no making impact. She was deep in thought, thinking blindly about everything and nothing while idly turning the thin, browned pages between her thin fingers. The little inked words stood out like the moon on a black night. If she blurred her eyes, the paragraphs almost took the form of little pictures, etched blindly into the paper while trying to convey another message, not thinking about what other things that the words could form.
Cassie was curled comfortably onto one of the Slytherin armchairs, her hair braided into two messy plaits, her body swathed in warm pink flannel pyjamas and her feet covered by wool knitted socks, courtesy of her grandmother Tessie. The armchair she currently occupied was feet away from the glowing fireplace, because although it was March, snow had come crashing down on the students of Hogwarts, forcing them from their spring clothes and back into their winter one's. As usual, the Slytherin common room was freezing, as it was whenever it snowed. Cassie had spent the entire afternoon adding logs to the fire and layers in turn to herself, when finally, at eleven when all the other students had gone to bed, it was comfortably cozy and warm. There were no lights on, save for the crackling fire.
It was pointless to hold the book any longer; she wasn't really reading it. She reached over with her short arms and placed in onto the side table, curling quickly back into her original position to make sure that she didn't lose any heat. She sniffed and looked around her. Memories of when she'd woken up one night and come to downstairs to find a thoroughly ill Tom Riddle came floating back to her. She smiled slightly, revelling in the warm feeling that spread throughout her body. Another time when they'd gotten stuck outside in the rain flooded back to her, and her grin widened, remembering fondly some of the adventures she'd shared with him.
In the morning, after the snow had finally run its course, a crisp white layer of the stuff lay over everything. Other than being absolutely freezing, it was a fine morning. The sun glinted off the icy crusted snow, causing it to sparkly in a way only snow can sparkle. Currently, Cassie was making her way along with a motley crew of fellow sixth years through said snow, their faces a blotchy red from the chilling wind that scratched along their faces with cruel talons.
The greenhouses were all the way at the back of the school, and she didn't blame the half of them that skived the class. They would probably just end up sitting in the deep-freezer like plant shelters, shivering like mad and not being able to pay attention to the Professor's loving lecture about the affects of Flesh-Eating Slug repellent. They probably wouldn't be able to hear him over the roar of the wind anyway.
It didn't take long for them to decide that it was better the class be held inside the castle. As half the class was missing anyway, they didn't do very much, and when the bell rung for lunch, Cassie hastily made her way to the Great Hall where she hoped a great vat of hot soup was waiting for her.
She wasn't disappointed.
A hearty beef stew swam deliciously in her bowl and she sloshed it around with her spoon, breathing in the curling steam that wafted heaven-like from the silver plate. Licking her lips self-indulgently, she took a heaving spoonful of the wonderful concoction and placed it in her mouth. It was at just the right temperature, very warm, but not hot enough to burn. Its warmth carried itself straight from her mouth down, down, to her stomach where it pleasantly heated the rest of her body. She smiled, and grabbed a piece of bread, buttering it and dipping it into the stew. The bread was even warm too! She closed her eyes and chewed slowly, taking in every flavour with gusto.
"Don't have an orgasm, now" warned a voice wryly from just beside her ear.
Her eyes snapped open and a scowl screwed her face as she turned towards the person who dare disturb her wonderful lunch.
"Oh", she said, swallowing painfully, "It's you", after the forced swallow, her voice was much more choked sounding then she would have liked, and ruined her sarcasm utterly.
Tom smirked at her, handing her a napkin and pointing to a spot on the corner of his mouth where she assumed stew remnants were now dripping. She yanked the serviette from his hand and wiped her whole mouth, placing it back down on the table and taking her glass of water and draining it in one.
There was still something she didn't like about Tom's smiles these days, but who was she to complain?
"So", she said pleasantly, helping herself to more stew, "Whot are yhoo up twoo thefes days?"
He grimaced slightly.
"Must you always talk with your mouth full?"
She swallowed roughly and sized him up, a playful pout on her face.
"Yes!" she exclaimed dramatically in her best Shakespearian voice, "I must!"
He rolled his eyes, his smirk growing again on his face.
"Well, some of us have lives to continue on with, so I'll leave you to your stew..."
"Hey! Are you insinuated that I don't have a life?"
He paused from getting up from the table.
"If you want to take it that way" he told her smirking.
She flung a bit of potato at him as he walked away, and forcefully tried to reduce her hysterical laughter to sniggers as the potato bit sat stuck in his hair.
A/N: Alright. This was a quick little chapter to show you that I'm really not dead! XD I'm not...I swear! I just got hit by a rogue bomb labelled "Reality" (EW. Reality.) and that blew up a lot of my inspiration. BUT. I've got so many plot bunnies now that I really don't know what to do with them, so the story is sure shooting from now on. I've got the very end written and everything! : D
I give you all permisson to send threatening messages if I don't update in time.