Chapter 28

Fred's Big Mouth

oOo

The morning before the midnight Quidditch match James was organising, Kasia was called to the Headmaster's office. With classes finished and the gruelling week of O.W.L.s, she struggled to wake up enough to get herself there.

"What if it's about the match?" James had said, aghast, when the letter had appeared on her lap in the common room.

Demi arched an eyebrow. "Why would Professor McGonagall ask to see Kasia? You're the one who's been messing around with pranks all year."

"Maybe…maybe she…" James trailed off, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"It's all part of her plan," Fred said with wide eyes, waving his hand through the air mystically. "She wants to make James paranoid, make him cancel the match out of fear!"

James thrust his finger at Fred. "Exactly!"

Kasia rolled her eyes as she pushed herself off the couch. She pushed James' head playfully. "You're an idiot. See you all soon."

At his indignant noise she looked back, but his expression looked decidedly pleased.

Once she said the password at the Headmistress' office, she went up the stairs and knocked.

"Come in, Miss Days."

Professor McGonagall was sitting at her desk with a large stack of papers. She gestured to the seat in front of her. "Please, sit."

The Headmistress kept examining her papers thoughtfully for a few moments before looking up at Kasia. "How have you been going with your transformations? Were you able to complete your O.W.L.s to your usual standard?"

Kasia blinked. "The O.W.L.s went okay, I think. I'm sure I made some mistakes."

"And the transformations?"

She hesitated. "They've been… It's not been the easiest year."

Professor McGonagall nodded sympathetically. "I'm truly sorry we've not been able to provide you with the potion this year. It's not easy to watch one of your students struggle so."

Kasia's stubborn streak flared. "Even without the potion, I still think my O.W.L.s will show that I've gotten by fine."

"I was not questioning your strength, Miss Days. You've certainly proven that time and time again. Now, have you given any thought to Professor Longbottom's suggestion about internships for potion-making?"

"Oh." Kasia frowned. "With O.W.L.s and…" As much as she hated to admit it, it wasn't just the O.W.L.s and the transformations that had distracted her the last few months. James dating Yasmine, and figuring out how to act with him since, had definitely been on her mind far more than it should have been. Then there was their plot to get Fred and Demi to forgive each other.

"It's been a strange year," Kasia managed.

Professor McGonagall gave her a knowing look. "Well, I have been in talks with Professor Slughorn. Unfortunately, he remains vital to the efforts against Silverback at this time, so he will not be returning to Hogwarts next year. However, the team of potioneers he has been teaching has expanded since the attacks began, as well as the team of gardeners and gatherers for the ingredients. There is certainly room for an apprentice or two among them, and Professor Slughorn has asked for you specifically. Are you interested?"

Kasia's mouth dropped open. "I would get to learn how to make Wolfsbane myself? Yes, yes, absolutely!"

The Headmistress gave a wry smile. "As an apprentice, you would likely be assigned to the teams gathering ingredients. But I am certain Professor Slughorn will give you a demonstration or two as they brew the potion itself. Now. July 16th and August 15th are the full moons over the summer. You will be working with those who will be extremely aware of when the full moons are. I suggest you arrange other holiday plans for those weeks. Visiting friends, family, and the like. Professor Slughorn will tell your coworkers he has sent you to the Murtlap farms to assist in gathering Murtlap tentacles. For August, you will be sent to the Hellebore fields to learn how to harvest and prepare the essence properly. These things are ingredients in the Wolfsbane Potion and often run out each full moon, so the timing shouldn't seem too suspicious. Either way, Professor Slughorn will move you from job to job often enough that the whole team won't get to know you too well."

Kasia nodded, wishing she had taken a quill. Professor Slughorn would fill her in, she was sure. "Those are…quite extensive measures."

"If you are to work in this industry, you had better become accustomed to such measures. It is unfortunate, but if you are to keep your condition a secret, it is necessary."

Kasia hadn't fully considered the lengths she would have to go to once she graduated Hogwarts and began working. Naively, part of her had just assumed it would be similar to how she'd kept her condition secret at Hogwarts.

"I do not mean to cause offense, but teenagers can, at times, notice few things that do not directly involve themselves. You may not find the same to be true once you work with adults."

She nodded. "Thank you for this opportunity, Headmistress."

"Thank Professor Slughorn. I will arrange for him to send you all the details."

oOo

When Kasia told her friends at lunch, they shared her excitement. She'd left out the lies she'd have to tell the potioneer team—any reference to how difficult her condition made things tended to make them feel overly protective of her. She mentioned she'd be staying at home for the full moon weeks, though.

"You'll be able to catch the trial, then!" James said excitedly. At his friends' confused looks, he frowned. "Didn't I mention I was interning at Teddy's firm in the summer? They need extra help coming up to this trial for the werewolf who was fired. The trial scheduled for August 19, so hopefully you'll feel well enough then to come."

"When did this happen?" Fred asked, perplexed.

"When we saw Teddy at Hogsmeade last month. You lot were stocking up at Honeydukes, I think, right before we went back to the castle. Teddy and I kept talking about the case, and he mentioned the internship that was available. On the way back you were all talking about O.W.L.s, then we got our timetables for exams and I guess it just slipped my mind. To be honest, I'd almost forgotten about it until the letter arrived from Advocates from the Wizarding World after O.W.L.s were over."

Fred looked at Demi indignantly. "Do you have some surprise internship this summer, too, or will we actually be able to see each other?"

Demi smiled. "I'm all yours. I don't know what I want to do, anyway."

"Thank Merlin for that." Fred grinned, and they shared a kiss.

James raised his eyes to the ceiling. "I'm already sick of the two of them. Good thing we'll be busy, eh, Kasia? Won't have to put up with that all summer."

"Very true." Kasia pushed her food around the plate. She was looking forward to the apprenticeship. But she'd also miss seeing all her friends all summer like usual. Especially James, she admitted. Her feelings for him hadn't changed, but she still wasn't sure about dating him. It was hard to shake her feelings about her condition after so long. She didn't want to start something she didn't intend to see through. She couldn't put them both through that again. Rio was almost a year ago, now.

James shifted the conversation to planning the Quidditch match, which soon amassed a larger crowd of students as more people weighed in, including those from other houses.

"Alright, alright, clear off, you lot!" James exclaimed after a Hufflepuff boy loudly asked him if first years could play. "The professors are looking suspicious. We've worked out everything we need to. Ask your Quidditch teams for more details—they know everything relevant. And keep it quiet."

His efforts proved in vain, and he tried to slip out of the Great Hall and down the hallway. Kasia and her friends headed back to the dormitory, watching with amusement and deflecting questions directed at them. Soon, a Slytherin fourth-year returned from the classroom James had gone into with puzzlement.

"He's gone! He's just vanished into thin air!"

The following students protested and insisted on looking for themselves, but Kasia, Demi, and Fred just laughed amongst themselves. The Marauders Map had certainly come in handy for James.

oOo

The midnight, interhouse Quidditch match was, Kasia was sure, everything James had hoped it would be, and more.

It seemed half the school was in attendance, which made it all the more impressive that the professors hadn't found out. Later, Kasia decided they had known, and decided to let it go ahead anyway.

Ravenclaw and Gryffindor teamed up against Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Victoire was the judge. Everyone was in their pyjamas aside from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, who were teased endlessly for taking it all too seriously.

James had organised for the house elves to prepare snacks for everyone. The team rotated every five minutes, including first years participating in certain rounds. Quidditch team members swapped roles, resulting in Chasers accidentally going for the Snitch—which had been enchanted to glow in the dark—Beaters using bats to hit the Quaffle, and Keepers leaving their stations.

Kasia played Chaser with Poppy Mitchell, the Ravenclaw team captain, and Anelia, who'd been playing Seeker for the first time that year. She dodged the Bludgers just fine, but fumbled the Quaffle more times than she could count. She was sure Elena Robinson, a Hufflepuff third-year, all but passed the Quaffle back to her once when she fumbled it, out of pity, and she still managed to throw it directly to Scorpius Malfoy instead, who grinned and yelled "Thanks!" as he whizzed towards the goal.

"I should've been Seeker," Kasia said to her friends, breathless as she landed when it was her time to swap. "At least then I could've just looked around aimlessly and not made a fool of myself."

James snorted. "There's more to being a Seeker than looking around aimlessly."

"Yeah, you have to look pretty, too," Fred said with a grin.

"James spends a lot of time on that part," Demi added.

James rolled his eyes and went on. "Besides, with your eyesight, you'd have probably seen the Snitch."

"I did see it a few times."

"What? Didn't you tell Abigail?"

"Was she playing Seeker?"

James stared at her in disbelief. "Yes."

"Are you supposed to tell the Seeker if you see the Snitch?"

He buried his face in his hands. "It's not hard to mention it in passing, Zia."

"Well, I'll tag you in and you can show me how it's done," Kasia said dismissively, handing him the school broom she'd been using.

"I'm no Chaser either." James mounted the broom with a grin. "But anything's better than that performance." He took off with a wink.

Kasia just stared after him, shaking her head. Her eyes kept following him, but mainly because he was wearing a singlet.

"When are you two just going to get on with it and kiss, eh?" Fred muttered.

Kasia whirled around to stare at Demi. "You told him!"

Demi grinned. "I didn't. But you just did."

"Oh, like he hasn't gone on about it enough," Fred said with a chuckle.

Kasia's heart raced. "What has he said?"

"There's a lot about your eyes. It was part of the breakup with Yasmine, you know, that owl he Transfigured you. You should've heard him that night. I've never seen anything like them. They're so distracting, blah, blah, blah… A bit nauseating, if I'm being honest."

Kasia stared at him. Demi did too.

"Er, Fred. Kasia didn't know all that."

Fred blinked. "Hm? You didn't?"

Kasia shook her head slowly, eyes drifting back to the match. Back to James. He caught her eye after he scored a goal and grinned. She waved absently.

"Bloody hell." Fred raked his hands through his hair. "Bloody hell! Ah, past 2am and my mind goes to sleep. What's the memory charm? Obliviate?"

"You're not wiping Kasia's memory!" Demis said indignantly.

"I thought you would've told her!" Fred exclaimed.

"You only told me because I promised you I wouldn't tell Kasia!"

"But…but… Kasia. You already knew, kind of, right? Kasia? Kasia!"

Kasia jolted back to the conversation. "I wasn't sure. Since Yasmine, I couldn't be sure."

Fred was bouncing from foot to foot. "But you fancy James, right? You all but said so before. So it doesn't matter that I told you? Merlin's bloody back hairs, the two of you got all involved in our business, so—"

Kasia started laughing. "Back hairs?"

"Kasia!" Fred's tone was half-whining, half-pleading. "Tell me this is going to be okay. I can't live myself if I've betrayed James' trust. Is the Lethifold still in the Forest? Maybe I'll take a walk…"

Demi whacked the back of his head. "Come off it." She looked at Kasia. "Remember on the night Yasmine and James broke up, you said you'd go for it if you had proof James fancied you too?"

"I said maybe," Kasia said quietly. She felt a bit sorry for the stress she was causing Fred.

Fred threw his hands up. "Maybe?"

"The lycanthropy of it all," Kasia muttered. "I'm…just not sure. I would need to be sure. I can't put him through that again, just to change my mind. I don't want to go through it again, either. Rio was almost a year ago, and it feels like we've only just recovered. My reasons still stand. I couldn't give him the life he wants. Or at least, I couldn't be sure if I was stopping him from living a life he might want, someday." Maybe a werewolf is just supposed to be alone. Friends are one thing, but… The case Teddy—and soon James—were working on just showed that her life was only going to get more complicated once she graduated and wasn't insulated by supportive Hogwarts professors and close friends at hand.

Fred and Demi gave her pained looks.

"Don't worry, Fred. What you said…it doesn't change what will happen. So, I guess it doesn't matter that I know." What a lie. It was like Rio again, but without the kiss. Wanting him. Knowing he wanted her. "I think…I think I'm going to go to bed. I still haven't properly recovered from the week, anyway. Staying up this late isn't going to help."

The two of them protested, but she waved them away and walked back towards the castle. She cast a long look back. With her eyesight, it might as well have been dusk. James weaved around Trey's intercept with a laugh that carried across the field, and hurled the Quaffle through the hoops. He grinned over at the cheering crowd.

Kasia kept walking, hoping she would be back in her dormitory before he realised she'd left.

oOo

"There are rumours you figured out a way to Apparate within Hogwarts, by the way, James," Demi said on the carriages to Hogsmeade Station a few days later. "Because of the morning of the match when you disappeared through a Map tunnel."

James gave an appreciative nod. "Wicked."

"My favourite theory was that you were an Animagi who could turn into a mouse or an insect," Fred said.

James snorted. "They don't know me very well if they think my Animagus would be something so defenceless." He stopped and considered for a moment, glancing at Kasia. "You know—"

"No."

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't even know what I was going to say."

"Don't I?" When he waited, Kasia sighed. "You were going to say how you'd forgotten you wanted to become an Animagus in first year. Well, was I right?"

James whistled. "Pretty much."

"Well, by all means, continue to forget about it."

James rolled his eyes, but they also fell on a few of the new scars on her face and arms. "If you say so."

His expression was far too thoughtful for her liking after that. She remembered what Professor McGonagall had said last year, about how if her friends wanted to become registered Animagi, there was a process for that.

She'd tried her best to act normal with James, but she was glad for the busyness of their summers. Maybe she could figure out what to do. Maybe she could find a way to reconcile it with herself.

She didn't have to feign tiredness to sleep on the train.

Marvell was there at Platform 9 ¾. His apartment was close to Professor Slughorn's workshop, so she wouldn't have to rely on the Floo Network. She was excited to stay with him for the summer.

"You alright?" He asked her after a hug.

Kasia shrugged. "It's been a long year." She leaned against him again, and he squeezed her tightly.

"Are you ready for this apprenticeship? You could always start a week later."

"No. That wouldn't be a good impression. And I'm already going to miss two weeks because of the full moons."

"Well, I'm here for you in any way you need."

"Thanks, dad."

She said her goodbyes to her friends and the Woods—promising to write every week, and to Demi every two days. She and Marvell were back in the Muggle part of King's Cross when she heard her name.

"Kasia!"

Kasia gave a pained noise, which drew a strange look from her father, and turned to face James, jogging after her.

"What's up, James?"

He stopped, no signs of exertion from his run. "Can I talk to you?"

She nodded, and Marvell gave them some space by taking Kasia's bags to his car.

James gave her a considering look. "You look nervous."

"I start tomorrow," Kasia said quickly.

He nodded. "Just wanted to say goodbye, I suppose. We haven't really had a chance to talk since the midnight match."

"Sorry I missed your round. It was a big week."

James rubbed the back of his head. "No worries. I, er…I'm not upset you missed it, to be honest."

Kasia blinked. "You aren't?"

"Oh, I just didn't set the best example of interhouse unity. Got a bit competitive."

Kasia remembered suddenly that Trey had been on the opposite team in that round. She was now intensely curious. She'd have to ask Demi about it.

She chuckled to ease his tension. "You, competitive?"

James managed a grin. "Hard to believe, right?" He looked at his feet. "Anyway, just wanted to wish you well for your apprenticeship. Will you write to me, tell me how it's going?"

Kasia smiled and nodded. "You, too. You're going to have an easy time. You've been standing up for a werewolf for years."

He laughed. "Yeah, even the time you chewed my head off for doing so."

Kasia's smile tightened. At least they were past that bitter phase in their friendship. She didn't like to be reminded. It hadn't taken much to shake her supports enough to leave her feeling totally alone.

James shook his head. "This isn't going how I wanted it to. I haven't got any more feet to put in my mouth, have I?"

"I'm sure you could manage it if you tried."

"I'll stop trying, then," James assured her. "I wanted to ask…" Her heart skipped, out of apprehension or anticipation, "…what you were doing for the full moons. Your dad's apartment is obviously out of the question. Will you be able to get some Wolfsbane from the workshop?"

"No, there's no surplus yet. I was going to go back to the Wood's. There's a forest I can go into, and Katie and Oliver are going to arrange for some help to watch the perimeter."

"Oh, then my parents will probably be there anyway." James nodded. "I'll be there, then."

"You don't have to, James. It'll be a long night for you all, and the July full moon is on a Sunday, so you'll be dead on your feet for your internship the next day—"

James laughed. "When are you going to stop trying to convince me not to help you? It's no problem, Kasia. I'll be there. Teddy said I can take some casework home for a few days, anyway, so don't you worry about my internship."

"A few days?"

"Well, yeah, you're not going to be back at the workshop the very next day."

"Demi and Fred will be there. You really don't need—"

"Kasia. Stop." He frowned for a moment. "If you don't want me there, I'll stay away, but… Bloody hell, I'm used to seeing you every day. I'm going to miss you, alright? And I like being there for you afterwards, in the hospital wing, when I can. It's the only time you really let me help you, so I know how much you need it. I know you'll have everyone else around if you need, but… Do you want me there, or not?"

Merlin, he really, really cares about me, doesn't he? No-one else seemed to know exactly what she needed post-full moon as much as James did. Ever since that time he flew in the window and read to her, he'd always known what to do. "Yes. I want you there."

He smiled, and there was a hint of relief there. Perhaps he was sensing her distance. "Then I'll be there." He tapped his tattoo of the moon cycles. "And I won't be late!"

Kasia returned his smile. "I'll see you then."

James held his arms out and she hugged him without a second thought. Damn it all, Fred, why did you have to open your big mouth? Why did being in his arms feel like the best thing in the world?

"Sorry." His voice was muffled in her hair. "I know we've been limiting hugs."

"It's fine." She wished her voice sounded less like a sigh. What was she doing? How were either of them going to move on? Reluctantly, she pulled away. Reluctantly, they parted ways.

"Do you have anything to tell me?" Marvell asked her expectantly in the car, with a rather failed attempt at hiding his smile.

"James will be helping with the full moons," Kasia said blandly.

"I expect he'd be there if he had to barge through a castle." The tone of approval was hard to miss. She'd forgotten how much her father liked James. "Will we be seeing him otherwise?"

"No." I do sound so sulky, don't I? Kasia thought. I'm going to have to get better at this.

"Because he's welcome over for dinner anytime."

"Dad!" Kasia exclaimed. "It's not going to happen!"

"Alright, alright!" Marvell kept his eyes on the road, but he shook his head with disbelief. Kasia thought she caught a mutter involving 'teenage girls' and sank down in her seat.

oOo

Hey, it's not been five years this time! Writing this story is like coming home Hopefully there'll be more soon.