Chapter 20 A/N I do not own Harry Potter. Any verbatim sentences are property of jk rowling, not me. As you can tell, poetry is not for me, most of it belongs to the great Bard himself, but I tried my hand at a few lines-probably makes no sense, but whatevs!
A week later, Cassie was allowed to go back to the common room with a crutch for her foot and a shoulder sling. Madam Pomfrey had given her a salve to reduce the bruising and swelling on her face so she didn't even bother with makeup, although any attempts would have been extremely painful. Hermione stayed in the hospital wing for another week, the rumors about her being petrified quickly changed to questions about what the prank was; Cassie remained decidedly tight lipped about it, especially when Fred and George asked her if it was the same prank she'd given them for Dumbledore.
Harry, Merlin, and Ron went to visit them every evening. When the new term started, they brought each day's homework with them so that neither girl would fall too far behind in their studies.
"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work," said Ron, tipping a stack of books onto Hermione's bedside table one evening.
"Don't be silly, Ron, I've got to keep up," said Hermione briskly. Her spirits were greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from her face and her eyes were turning slowly back to brown. "I don't suppose you've got any new leads?" she added in a whisper, so that Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear her.
"Nothing," said Harry gloomily.
"I was so sure it was Malfoy," said Ron, for about the hundredth time.
"Told you so." Cassie said happily, for the hundredth and first time, mindful of her still mending bones.
"What's that?" asked Harry, pointing to something gold sticking out from under Hermione's pillow.
"Just a get well card," said Hermione hastily, trying to poke it out of sight, but Ron was too quick for her. He pulled it out, flicked it open, and read aloud:
"To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award."
"He didn't send me one." Cassie said, sighing, "Guess that means I'm safe from his insufferable presence." she said lightly.
Ron looked up at Hermione, disgusted as she glared at Cassie.
"You sleep with this under your pillow?"
But Hermione was spared answering by Madam Pomfrey sweeping over with her evening dose of medicine.
"I've to go. Detention with Snape. See you tomorrow." Merlin said as goodbye, leaving sullenly towards the dungeons.
"I'll walk down with you, Merlin. Wait! Bye, 'Mione. Bye, Harry. Bye, Ron." Cassie said, giving each a kiss on either cheek before slowly hobbling over to him.
Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less, and furfree, at the beginning of February.
"So, Merlin planning any Valentines?" Cassie asked conversationally at the table one morning at breakfast, receiving a kick from Hermione to her left.
"Not necessarily? I have a feeling Lockhart's going to make a day out of it." he answered, trying hard not to laugh "Why? Do you want one? I'm sure you'll have the most."
"I wouldn't be surprised if our dear Harry beat me on that front." Cassie joked, laughing as Harry paled at the table.
"Don't you two dare do anything!" he said, raising a finger at them warningly.
"Why? Gonna sic the monster on us, Harry?" Merlin asked jokingly.
"Oh, shove off, will you." he said, annoyed.
"Do either of you know a T.M. Riddle?" Harry asked them.
"I saw his name in the Trophy room at my last detention." Cassie said. "I've never been more thankful for dragon hide gloves as I was then, I would have chipped all my nails with all the scrubbing. And my hands would have looked withered by all the potions."
"No, never heard it." Merlin said quickly, ignoring Cassie's comments.
"I can do research!" Cassie said, before Hermione did, her eyes lighting up, "Come on Hermione, we've got some time before class." Cassie said, letting herself be grabbed by her and dragged up to the library.
"I can't believe you asked him!"
"Well, you certainly weren't going to. And I didn't mention you. Although, now I suppose I should expect one filled with veiled insults." Cassie said, tilting her head to the side. "Why's Harry want to know who this Riddle is?" Cassie asked.
"He found a diary in the bathroom. It's blank, but it can't be a coincidence, I don't know why he doesn't just throw it away, it's an empty diary."
"Boys. Who will ever understand them?" Cassie said with a roll of her eyes and continued to the library.
"We know he won an award fifty years ago, maybe if we find something from then?" Hermione offered, and they began their search.
The sun had now begun to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, and Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood.
"The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for repotting again," Harry heard her telling Filch kindly one afternoon. "And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. You'll have Mrs. Norris back in no time."
Perhaps the Heir of Slytherin had lost his or her nerve, thought Harry. It must be getting riskier and riskier to open the Chamber of Secrets, with the school so alert and suspicious. Perhaps the monster, whatever it was, was even now settling itself down to hibernate for another fifty years...
Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff didn't take this cheerful view. He was still convinced that Harry was the guilty one, that he had "given himself away" at the Dueling Club. Peeves wasn't helping matters; he kept popping up in the crowded corridors singing "Oh, Potter, you rotter..." now with a dance routine to match.
Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think he himself had made the attacks stop. Harry overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration. "I don't think there'll be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him. You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing..." He tapped his nose again and strode off. Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fourteenth. Harry hadn't had much sleep because of a late-running Quidditch practice the night before, and he hurried down to the Great Hall, slightly late. He thought, for a moment, that he'd walked through the wrong doors.
"Damn! You were right, Merlin. I owe you two Galleons now!" Cassie said the moment she walked into breakfast. The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Harry went over to the Gryffindor table, where Ron was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to have been overcome with giggles.
"What's going on?" Harry asked them, sitting down and wiping confetti off his bacon.
Ron pointed to the teachers' table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where he sat, Harry could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.
"Oh, I wish I had a camera, that's the best picture that could be taken today!" Cassie said, giggling along with Hermione, though for very different reasons.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all - and it doesn't end here!" Cassie groaned when she heard this, "That makes it three Galleons now, this man is going to make me broke!"
"I'll give you a week to pay up, Cassie," Merlin said smugly.
"I'm going to get back at you for that, Merlin." Cassie said, plotting her revenge.
Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps. "My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!" Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.
"Please, Hermione, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six, said Ron as they left the Great Hall for their first lesson. Hermione suddenly became very interested in searching her bag for her schedule and didn't answer.
"She did!" Cassie gasped, her eyes dancing with mirth.
"Come on, we'll be late to Transfiguration." Merlin said, dragging Cassie away from the blushing girl before she could begin the playful teasing.
All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers.
In Transfiguration, however, McGonagall was positively fuming; dwarves had interrupted her lesson a total of five times, every time with a Valentine for Cassie. She was as pink as a sweet briar rose. Two of them were from Cedric and Leon, and were quite funny. Neville, Fred and Geroge sent the other three, and were pretty funny, Fred and George included a prank to go along with theirs, McGonagall practically yelled at the dwarves, giving them such withering looks, when the prank went off that Cassie was sure steam would come out her ears if she got any madder.
In Charms, Tommy sent his, making Cassie blush even deeper and get flustered. There was also an anonymous one that was rather poetic. The Hufflepuffs had Double Defense after lunch, and Merlin sent his then. The dwarf came in at the beginning, making Lockhart extremely happy. But when he recited the poem that Merlin had written for Cassie, he got pretty angry, the poem went something like this:
'Thy cream faced loon.
Thou lili-liver'd girl.
Were'st thou not such a lovely cook,
I would desire we may be better strangers.
You have such a February face
So full of frost, storm and cloudiness.
Thou has more hair than wit,
and more faults than hairs,
and more wealth than faults.
But those faults, are your wealthiest traits,
And if music be the food of love, play on
For I love you like a sister,
You starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue,
You stock-fish.
O for breath to utter what is like thee!
You tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bow-case!'
"Aww! You do care, Henry!" Cassie said singsongy, wrapping her arms around him. "Although, you should listen to mine!" Cassie said, nodding at the dwarf.
'When I first met you, I thought you a fool
Now that I know you, I know you a tool.
But don't ever change you big, lumpish buffoon.
After all, we all know you're merely a loon.
The tartness of thy face sours ripe grapes,
And you move like a pack of apes!
Thy yeasty tickle brained rogue!
Alas, thou art too big a loon for me to desert,
And too great an honest knave.
What a fool honesty is!
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
Ho! 'Tis a good thing thou art a loggerheaded, hasty-witted harpy
Your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone
And that makes me love you so.'
The whole class was outright in hysterics at the two's antics, but Lockhart was fuming.
"DETENTION! Both of you!" he yelled
"Why, Professor. We're just expressing our fondness of each other?" Cassie asked in the most innocent voice she could muster.
"Those poems were plagiarized! I recognise the Bard's words" he said, finding a valid reason for detention and smiling triumphantly.
"But we've included a disclaimer, see?" Cassie said, taking the anatomically correct heart valentines-both dripping blood and Cassie's with an arrow through it-from the dwarf and showing him the disclaimer at the bottom. "'Courtesy of a compilation of insults from the Bard himself' disclaimer as promised. " Cassie said, smiling at him equally as triumphantly.
"You two still have detention tonight." he said angrily, the whole class laughing even harder.
"But I already have detention with Professor McGonagall tonight." Cassie told him.
"Fine! Tomorrow!"
"Okay, professor. See you then." Cassie said, shrugging, thankful the sling was gone.
"Heard you got quite a few valentine's today." Ron said shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Oh! That reminds me!" Cassie said, handing Hermione her Valentines and going over to Neville.
"Thank you for the Valentine, Neville. It was really sweet! I liked it," Cassie told him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek and hug. "I consider you a good friend too." she said while hugging him.
"Oi! Where's our hug and kiss?" Fred demanded behind her.
"I would, but you two got me detention with McGonagall tonight." Cassie said, crossing her arms.
"Did you like it? We were inspired by your Christmas present." George said, smiling puckishly.
"Oh, it was glorious!" Cassie said sarcastically "But I still have detention tonight," she said, turning on her heel and walking back to where Merlin and the others were sitting a few paces away.
"You really got detention?"
"Yup." Cassie said, popping the 'p' at the end.
"That hardly seems fair, it was Fred and Geroge who did the prank not you." Hermione said.
"Yeah, but I may have used quite a bit of expletives in French when they doused my hair in lime yellow paint."
"She has a worse mouth than a trooper." Merlin added helpfully. "McGonagall was blushing by the end. I didn't know she even spoke french."
"She was not, she was already red-faced from anger."
"Oh, no. Cassie. She was blushing at some of the things you said."
"What'd she say?" Ron and Harry asked at the same time.
"Repeat a word of it in english, Merlin, and I will," Cassie said, whispering what she would do in his ear and making him gulp and say, "Nothing, absolutely nothing. She said nothing."
"Good, you're not as half-witted as I thought," Cassie said, smiling smugly.
"Except for 'those fucking three-inch bone-hopping shit-cock bitch pole-floating weasel-twin ass-hats' I don't care what you do to me it was worth it!" Merlin said quickly, expecting the slap on the back of his head.
"Cassie!" Hermione said blushing deeply.
"You don't mess with my hair!" Cassie said dangerously, glaring at the twins in question, who were staring at them open-mouthed.
"I'd really love to see what happens if you say that in front of Mum!" Fred said.
"I don't normally say such vile things, but my hair is strictly off limits, boys." she said warningly.
"She's telling the truth, if I told you just what she threatened to do to me, you wouldn't go near her with a lance pole."
"What'd you say?" Cassie asked, a flash of a memory of someone saying the same thing so long ago.
"What? Lance pole? You do know what that is right?"
"Don't be ridiculous, of course I know what a lance pole is!" Cassie said in annoyance, the memory having slipped from her mind. "Whatever, I'm going to go put my stuff in my room before I go to detention. See you."
After detention, Cassie found her path to the basement obstructed as she walked into the chest of a boy.
"Liked my Valentine?" came the arrogant voice of a certain Slytherin.
"It was rather sweet, Draco. Thank you." Cassie said politely hiding her surprise that it was his and not wanting to make an enemy out of him.
"Father's planning a party over Easter. Would you like to come? All the best families will be there. He's already starting the guest list, I'm sure your family is at the top of it."
"If your father wants my parents there, I won't be." Cassie said, keeping a pleasant air even though she tasted bitter in her mouth.
"So it's true, then?" he asked after a few seconds' pause
"What is?" Cassie asked cordially, knowing perfectly well to what he was referring to.
"Your family's disowned you." he said, not in a judging way, just curious.
"Yes, it's true." Cassie said, keeping her composure.
"Changes things, then. Father would never invite someone who's been disowned to his house." Draco said thoughtfully. "Sh-"
"What do you want, Draco? Is there a reason behind you and your goons," Cassie asked impatiently, interrupting and looking him and his friends over in an ornery manner, "Stopping me from going to my common room?"
"Yes there is. Before you so rudely interrupted," he said, looking at her sharply, "I was going to say what a shame it was that you were disowned. You are of a dying class, Cassie. Your charm and elegance are truly hard to come by these days. Very few families are able to boast your level of cultivation in their youngest generation. Just look at the blood-traitor Weasleys you're so fond of." he said in a depreciating tone.
"If you're just going to offend me and my friends, Draco, I do think it would be better for you to tell your friends to move aside so I can get to my common room." Cassie said, using all her restraint to keep from insulting him.
"No." he said, raising his hands in a placating gesture, "I'm not trying to insult you. I could care less who your friends are. Your prerogative who you associate with. Just complimenting your gentility. I have a proposition for you."
"Not an indecent one, I hope." Cassie said, keeping her withdrawn air.
"No, it's not indecent. I believe it would benefit both of us. I propose we become friends, what say you?"
"May I answer you tomorrow?" she asked.
"You may. It's a shame you weren't in Slytherin. We would have been such good friends without the secrecy." he said, nodding to Crabbe and Goyle and leaving for the dungeons.
"Your friends don't have to all be from the same house, you know." Cassie pointed out softly as he turned away.
"They do if you're a Slytherin." he said, matching her voice.
"Sounds lonely. Good night, Draco." Cassie said apologetically and continued down the corridor to the entrance, her thought swirling.
