Chapter 10B POV Fred
"You're gonna be sick if you keep eating all that, Cas," I say.
"Aw, let her get sick, it'd teach her a lesson," says George.
Jo kicks George in the shins.
Ruby gasps.
Cas laughs through her pumpkin muffin. "You know how much I've been looking forward to this, I'm not going to waste it," she tells me. I just smile and shake my head.
We're on the Express, heading home. I'm sitting next to George, facing Cas, Jo and Ruby. George isn't looking at me or Cas, he's been real mad since April. I don't get why- Cas has been working real hard to get Jo to like him more, even if he doesn't realize it. That's what he wants, right? And even if I've been spending more time with Cas on the side, maybe learning some magic, maybe using it in Hogsmede to get candy for our party, what's the big deal? Cas was trying to make him happy- make us both happy. George is being a child, but two can play at that game. Cas has kicked up her level of stubborn in the past months, and it's made Jo and me kinda uncomfortable, but we all mostly ignore it. Even Ruby knows not to bring it up.
Cas nibbles away at her muffin, bunches up the wrapper and reaches into a bag she recently filled with sweets from the trolley. She loves that thing more than Hogwarts itself. I see George roll his eyes, prompting Cas to stick out her tongue and take a defiant bite of nougat. George turns to look out the window, and I try to follow his gaze. There really isn't much to see.
It's dark out- real late. Later than it should be. When we get to King's Cross it'll be real packed full of angry impatient parents. I can't imagine what mum'll say when she sees us. If she knows what happened by now, which she probably does, she might kill me and George right then and there.
"So...what're you all doing over holiday?" Ruby doesn't appreciate silence. I don't know how Cas can keep her around. I like her well enough, she's refreshingly...innocent, next to the rest of us. Me and George look at each other and shrug, since we don't actually have much planned.
"I guess it all depends on whether or not mum kills us at Kings Cross" says George, trying to sound nonchalant. Jo cracks up and Cas makes a face, trying not to smile. I see her eyes flash at George, and he catches her for a second before they both turn their heads away.
"What about you, Cas?" I ask. She shakes her head before answering.
"Nothing much- I mean, I could probably do whatever I want, but nothing planned. Tonks isn't coming though, so it'll be...lonely I guess." She looked genuinely sad at that, and I felt myself frowning too. Charlie and Tonks graduated, so they'll be moving on. Charlie's looking for a job, I guess Tonk's is too, which is why she won't be with Cas.
"Quidditch'll be way different next year, won't it?" Jo asks, to no one in particular.
"If you didn't win this year you certainly won't next year," I tease, and George shoves me.
"Ron'll be coming next year," I add. I told Cas about Ron, but apparently George didn't fill Jo in, so I have to explain. There's not much to explain though, he's another Weasley. Not as fun as us, but more fun than Percy.
"You'll recognize him when you see him, I mean- he's a Weasley," George says.
"When you say "fun", you mean fun like us?" Jo asks him, and me and George both start laughing.
"No, not like us."
"So, he wouldn't have helped seal the doors and hold the school hostage on the last day of school?" Cas laughs. We all start laughing except Ruby, who's not only lost in the conversation, but also entirely uncomfortable with what we did. Her eyes are all bulging now, looking down and away from the rest of us.
"Come on, Roo," Cas nudges her, "it was fun. You know it was fun." Ruby blushes while the rest of us laugh, and eventually she loosens up. She shouldn't be scared, and if she's embarrassed, it's for the wrong reasons. Cas, on the other hand, is never going to let any of us take responsibility for sealing the school because she was entirely embarassed with the results. Apparently the prank didn't meet Cas's expectations, and it was a "complete failure". She's so melodramatic. And a perfectionist.
See, last night we all had our jobs. Me and Geogre went around sealing all the classroom doors and windows, including the Great Hall. Jo and Ruby took all the exists to the courtyards. Cas sealed the main entrance. It took her a week after making the plan to find the right spell, and another few to actually cast it properly. She has a knack with spells, we all tell her. I end up telling her most every day. She's a real incredible witch, but she doesn't see it like that.
The next morning I woke up to a first year crying in the common room and the prefects trying to calm him down. He kept crying that he couldn't open the door to get out to breakfast. The prefects tried the door and realized he was right. Cas walked over and we sat on the couch quietly admiring our work. The one prefect got mad and pulled his wand, yelling that whatever this is, he'll find the culprit and have them expelled. He started casting spells at the door, more advanced stuff than I knew, and Cas gripped my hand. I nearly flinched when she did, but she was holding on tight. She was biting her lip and staring right at the door. Eventually the prefect found the right spell to open it without damaging anything, but it took a good half hour. A crowd had gathered at that point to watch, and different uppclassmen were shouting out suggestions and trying on their own to open it. When it finally opened, I felt myself sigh. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath. Cas threw my hand out of hers, and she was red in the face. Not from laughing or being scared, but out of embarrassment. She was ashamed.
I had to forcefully pull her out the open door so we could follow the herd up to the Great Hall, where everyone but me and Cas were expecting breakfast. Jo and George wormed their way through the growing crowd, and as they got closer Geogre tossed me and Cas some apples. Cas caught it and bit into it defiantly, forcing a little smile when she thanked George. Her smile got a little bigger when the bell tolled and the crowd pushed forward, expecting the doors to open as usual. They didn't, and the four of us grinned.
A bit of madness ensued, people pushing everywhere and shouting. George grabbed my shoulder and pointed into the crowd, shouting something. I followed where he was pointing and saw what he meant. Getting pushed around in the middle of everything was Ruby. She was trying to push her way towards us, but for the life of her couldn't fight the crowd. I got Cas's attention and pointed, and she dropped her apple, eyes flashing. She reached into her robe, but before she could pull her wand George grabbed her from behind. She tried to throw him but his arms were locked around her. She started screaming and tried to bite him.
Meanwhile Jo rammed her way through the sea of students to get to Ruby, and pulled her over to us safely. Her face was red and she was cradling herself, and I figured she was about to cry. George, under Jo's orders, finally let go of Cas who threw herself towards Ruby, taking her by the shoulders and asking her if she was alright and not quite comforting her, but as close to comforting as Cas could probably get.
Finally Dumbledore quieted everyone and opened the door with one stroke of his wand. I looked over to see Cas's nostrils flare and her face turn bright. She was mad again. I didn't get why- Dumbledore was obviously a better wizard than her, and she caused plenty of chaos already. Not to mention there was more to come.
We ate, Cas in silence and me trying to engage her in conversation. As soon as she was done she ran back to the her dorm to finish packing. Our biggest victory, and in Cas's mind her biggest defeat, came when we were leaving for summer. Dumbledore came down to let us out, but when he motioned for Filtch to open the door, it wouldn't budge. The students laughed as he kept trying; and the five of us, together again, smiled silently to ourselves. Dumbledore pulled out his wand with a knowing grin, and Cas tensed up, grabbing my hand again, and Jo's too, by the way I saw Jo wince.
"Calm down," I whispered to her, but she just squeezed my hand tighter. Dumbledore lifted his wand and I heard Cas draw in her breath real sharp, but before anything could happen, there was a shriek.
Cas exhaled, relieved, while I jumped. Everyone looked up and saw Peeves swoop in. He dove low and the crowd went crazy, running and diving and screaming. Peeves was cackling, throwing ectoplasm everywhere. Our group of five backed up and calmly stood against a wall, smiling at our work. McGonigal and Filtch were yelling, but Dumbledore stood patiently. Peeves swooped low by him, but one look at Dumbledore's face and the mischief stopped. Peeves bid goodbye to everyone, laughed once more, and flew into some other part of the castle.
Dumbledore knew it was us. I knew he knew, George and Jo and Cas knew he knew, and Ruby especially knew he knew. But while Ruby was scared as anything, the rest of us stayed strong. Dumbledore made an announcement that he knew students were behind this, and therefore all of the students would clean Peeves's mess. It took two hours total to clean everyone and everything. Part of that time was fiddling around with the doors and windows me and George had sealed. During the cleanup I asked Cas about what happened with Peeves, and she gave me a mischievous smile and said it was her idea, but Jo was to thank. Apparently Jo and Peeves go back a ways.
So we left a few hours late and caught the Hogwarts Express, and here we are. During the cleanup and even now, when people see us or pass our car they give us thumbs up and smiles, and we've even gotten a salute or two. So here we are, Cas stuffing her face, Jo stealing Cas's food, Ruby wallowing in worry, and me and George talking away. It's dark out, and Cas gets up and leaves the car to change out of her robes. She made sure to sit by the door this time after all the grief we've given her the past. In the past five minutes the conversation had dropped, and Ruby has been getting figity.
"So you're brother's coming next year?" George and I both nod at her.
"What house do you think he's gonna be in?" She asks. George snaps his head up to look at her. He opens his mouth, and I can see he was about to say Gryffindor. But he stopped himself, and I'm thankful.
"Can't say," he finally mutters, saving me the embarrassment of answering. Jo gives Ruby an awkward sideways glance, and Ruby blushes deeply.
"Well, what do your parents think? About your brother coming to Hogwarts, I mean," she stutters. I see Jo roll her eyes, but this time I don't really mind answering.
"They're exited. Sad that they're losing their last boy, but Ginny's still home another year, so they'll be fine."
"You have a sister too? I didn't realize. How old is she?" Now George is visibly annoyed too. I brush her off as Cas comes back into the car. She lays herself across Ruby and Jo, and quickly gets rolled to the floor. She jumps up and pulls her wand again, but Jo steps on her foot.
"Don't you dare!" Jo shouts, and Cas's nose wrinkles up all angry. She sits herself down and folds her arms, tucking away her arm. "I'm still mad at you," she mutters in mine and George's direction.
"At me?" George asks, and she nods her head.
"Why?"
"You jumped on me."
"Oh, don't be a child. I told him to," Jo says. Cas sits up and stares at her, silently demanding an answer.
"You were pulling you're wand! We wanted some chaos, not another fire," Jo explains. Cas huffs and sinks back into her chair while me and Jo laugh. George smiles a little, but it doesn't look genuine.
"I didn't realize you were so frail, sorry Cassidy," he offers, half genuine, half teasing. She sticks her tongue out at him, while at this point me Jo and even Ruby were laughing hysterically. After that there's silence until we reach King's Cross. Cas and Ruby had fallen asleep, so we shake them awake and we all pulled down our luggage.
Outside the car door there's a lot of movement. Kids passing though, trying to shove their way to the parents waiting outside the train. Then someone on the outside pulls the door open- it's Charlie. He pulls me and George into a hug and waves at the girls. Me and my brothers leave the car and make our way to find Percy and mum and dad. As we're leaving I turn around to wave goodbye again, and I see someone else entering the car. Oliver. I turn back around and see George looking down at his shoes. I don't get why Oliver's pushing so hard with Jo, and why George isn't. He should make more of an effort, but that's not really my problem. This is something we can handle next year, a problem for third years.
AN- Hope you liked the chapter, darlings. Next week the group starts their third year. Things begin to get very interesting, and the story's going to officially merge with the book. We'll keep it as cannon as we can, but be prepared for a couple surprises. See you next Tuesday! Yours, -cowriter