Cass had been nervously pacing by the kitchens, wondering where the bloody hell Enzo was before realizing that they'd never actually set a time and he, therefore, couldn't be late. She wanted to groan at herself for being so stupid. For all he knew, they could have been meeting at midnight. All they said was "tonight." That didn't exactly narrow things down. If anything, she was making herself seem more than a little desperate by being there as soon as she'd finished eating.

Merlin, what if he's not even done eating and I look like a fool? She almost groaned again and she probably would have if she didn't see his smiling face come speed-walking toward her with an arm full of snacks. And Enzo had big arms so that was a lot.

"Hey! Sorry, I would have been here sooner but I wasn't sure what you liked. I asked your friend... Margot?" he said with a questioning tone. "But she wasn't very helpful."

Cass laughed. "Margot never is." Helpful without being coerced was far from her friend's vocabulary. Usually, coersion meant food. Cass wondered if Margot had skimmed off the top of her date's stash.

Nope. Not your date. He just wants casual. Remember? He even said he doesn't want to date you. He was just kidding at the Quidditch pitch. Cass shook off the thought, determined not to let it ruin her evening. "You really asked her what I like?"

"Yeah. Of course. I didn't want to bring anything you didn't like," he said as if that were the obvious answer. She was struck by the realization that Zach would have never done this for her. She regretted even thinking that because it made her heart skip a beat knowing that Enzo did it for her. It didn't help that he was wearing a white t-shirt and dark jeans, his brown hair dripping as if he'd just stepped out of the shower, making the shirt translucent. Mary, mother of Jesus, give me strength, she thought as she watched his arms flex from holding it all.

"I'm surprised you brought anything at all," she said honestly.

"Good surprise I hope?"

She smiled. "Yeah, good... You're different, Lorenzo Berkshire. But I like different."

His cheeks turned pink and Cass had to force herself not to read into it, instead beckoning him over to the unsuspecting barrels in the corridor. She knocked on them a few times before the lid swung open, revealing the passageway that led to the dormitories.

Cass looked back at Enzo, who looked completely amazed at their humble entrance. "Cool!" he said as they walked through the tunnel, his voice echoing against the stone. "I feel like I'm a knight on a quest."

She had to resist the urge to tell him that he looked like a knight, instead teasing him with a cheeky grin. "Does that make me the dragon?"

Enzo scoffed. "Of course not. You're the fair princess with the hair of golden sun." The blush was back on his cheeks as he smiled sheepishly. "I guess I listened to my sister tell fairytales more than I thought I did."

She just giggled.

They stepped into the main part of the common room—a warm, well-lit room with oak carvings of various Hufflepuff symbols. The Hufflepuff common room smelled like honey and fresh plants despite all of the fires lit around the room. The many couches in the middle were filled with students hanging out after a long Saturday. They all smiled at Cass and some of them even gaped when they saw Enzo.

"Yo, Berkshire!" a seventh-year boy that Cass could never remember the name of said. "Are you here to party?"

Cass wondered if partying was how he'd intended to celebrate his win. She felt bad for stealing him away for a dumb little movie night. Now she wondered if she hadn't been considerate enough when suggesting it.

Enzo just smiled. "Sorry, not tonight. Another time." Then, he turned to Cass. "Lead the way through your glorious castle, fair princess."

Now Cass was the one who was blushing. She smiled at him before gesturing to one of the many hallways behind the carvings. They followed it to a staircase that led to her and Margot's humble little room. Cass swung the door open and sighed with relief when she saw that her roommate had miraculously kept her side clean. Yes, with Margot, that was a miracle.

She shifted her weight nervously on her feet—her fingers fiddling with her leggings, then her t-shirt—as Enzo took in the room, his eyes lingering on her bed for some unknown reason. Her side of the room was so different from Margot's. A yellow bedspread with a white lace ruffle underneath. Pictures of Cass with Andie, her parents, and Margot lining the walls in between the random shots she took on the camera on her nightstand. Clouds she thought were cool, landscapes she thought were pretty, a close-up of a cat she met while roaming the streets of her cousin's hometown. With lights dangling from the ceiling and an overflowed vase of sunflowers courtesy of her parents, it was a far cry from Margot's cool, calm, and collected side of the room with its rich cherry red bedspread and things strewn about in an aesthetic way.

"Sorry," Cass said as Enzo only paid attention to her side of the room. It must have looked horrible if he was staring at it like that. "Andie always said my room was lame. We should have just hung out in the common room or something."

"Lame?" Enzo asked with surprise evident in both his voice and his eyes. He turned back to her with a bright smile. "I think it's adorable. Just like—" He coughed and his face turned red. "I mean, it fits you really well."

Cass scrunched her eyebrows together, though her cheeks felt a little warm from his compliment. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he said, not meeting her eyes. "I'm grand. So what did you say we were doing? 'Watching a film?' What's that?"

Cass had always loved how she was a half-blood. She felt like she got the best of both worlds with her parentage. She had a crazy wizard family where every little thing felt like... well... magic. There was no shortage of wonderment with the Cranes as their small but fierce numbers enveloped her every chance she got. And then there were the muggles, who were large in numbers but were a little more subdued. She had at least twenty cousins that showed up to every holiday in America but yet dinners with her parents and grandparents were always much louder. Both sides of her family loved her dearly and Cass loved them back—she always thought that differences could bring people together in the most immeasurable of ways. Sure, she had to hide one part of herself whenever she and Andie visited but she loved getting to see things from a muggle point of view.

But sometimes, as a half-blood, it was easy to forget that some people lived in only one of her two worlds. There were people like her cousins who had no idea that miracles existed right in their backyards if only they had the sight to see them. There were also people like Enzo, who grew up so sheltered from the muggles that he had no idea there was an entire group of people waiting to be explored. Cass didn't fault Enzo, of course. It was muggle ignorance that forced wizards into hiding. But as she slowly got to know him, she realized that she wanted to show him a side most people didn't know. Her muggle side.

"Yeah," she said softly, hoping that he wasn't one of those wizards who judged muggles harshly. She didn't think he would be but, then again, Enzo was becoming very hard for Cass to read. If he were anyone else, she might have thought he had a crush on her yet there he was, telling her he just wanted to be casual and not date her. "Is that alright?"

He just smiled. "Only if you accept that I'm going to have no idea what's going on. I don't even know what a film is."

She grinned back. "Good thing you have an expert in your midst."

"A very good thing. And a princess," he pointed out as he bit his tongue adorably.

"Come on," Cass said, motioning to her bed. "We don't have any chairs I can bring out but we can just sit here if that's alright with you."

She plopped onto the bedspread and curled up in the corner against the wall so there was room for him, happily tucking her feet underneath her body so they weren't cold. But when Cass looked back at Enzo—wondering why she hadn't felt his body weight shift the bed—she saw a peculiar sight. He was standing there with his cheeks flushed and his pupils so large they looked almost black. His normally bright blue eyes had darkened while his lips were parted. "Enz," Cass asked gently. "Are you alright?" She'd never seen a boy look like this. It was almost worrying.

"Erm, yeah," he rasped in a voice that had Cass wishing they were anything but casual. "Just give me a second." He turned around and seemed to be fiddling with his... trousers? No, that didn't make sense. Cass was sure he was just adjusting his grip on the snacks or something. She'd never seen Zacharias adjust his trousers or anything so she was probably just making things up.

While she let him do... well, whatever it was he needed to do, Cass got the movie set up. The television was a Christmas gift from Andie during their first year at Hogwarts (well, from her parents but her sister picked it out). Andie knew how much Cass loved watching movies so she gave her one to use at Hogwarts. Technically speaking, there was supposed to be no electricity at Hogwarts because of all the magic but apparently Andie had worked out some charm with Professor Flitwick to get it working. Every year, Andie gave her a new film to watch to go along with the television. They were always princess or fairytale-related because Cass had adored all movies like that since she was just a little girl. The one she put in the disc player was Cass's favorite—and the first one that she'd ever seen.

Soon, the bed dipped as Enzo gingerly sat down next to her, his body completely stiff as he struggled to sit in the twin bed without touching her. "Sorry! I thought we could just squeeze in and sit close. I should have realized you would be uncomfortable. I can just sit on the floor—" Cass began to say but Enzo cut her off.

"No way, Cass. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable," he said, gently pushing her back toward her spot. "If anything, I'm the one on the floor."

She shook her head. "Definitely not. You're my guest."

He smiled. "Looks like neither of us will be on the floor then." Enzo shifted until he was more on the bed, his large body leaning against a majority of the pillows and sitting half off the bed. Between his toned muscles and long legs, it was clear that it would be hard for him to sit there without their bodies connecting. Enzo turned to Cass with eyes that looked dark again. That's odd. I wonder what those mean. "Is it alright if I touch you?"

Cass could feel her eyes widen but she just slowly nodded. Enzo shifted so he was more on the bed before brushing against her side. She couldn't help but notice how warm he felt against hers, though that also could have been her blush from the moment she felt their skin touching. Touching Lorenzo Berkshire felt like coming home for the first time in a long time only to see a fire in the hearth and a warm meal on the table. She wanted to wrap herself in the feeling and never let it go.

As Cass began to play the movie, Enzo grunted and his arm twitched. She immediately sat up. "Are you uncomfortable?"

He smiled apologetically. "Sorry, it's just my arm was kind of in a bad spot. Don't move on my account."

"Don't be silly! Here, you can lay it back and I'll just lean against it." She grabbed onto his arm and laid it across the bed before leaning back in the spot she was before. Cass thought Enzo might have stiffened before but, to her surprise, he settled into this new position as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His arm wrapped around her shoulders while his hand dropped to her hair. His finger played with one of the many loose curls while Cass fought not to shiver. Remember: Enzo just wants casual. Be his friend, she thought as she curled a little further into his embrace.

The music from the movie started to play as the credits started to roll. Beautiful scenery played out across the screen before the title flashed and the film began. "'Sleeping Beauty?'" Enzo asked with his face scrunched. "What's that?"

"It's a princess movie." Cass cringed. "Sorry. I should have thought you wouldn't want to watch something like this."

His eyes brightened. "A princess, you say? It's perfect."

Cass had to force herself not to breathe a heavy sigh in relief that Enzo wasn't one of the misogynistic assholes that couldn't appreciate a movie just because it had a princess in it.

The movie continued for a bit before Enzo smiled and pointed at the screen. "I know why you like this. She looks just like you."

Cass blushed. He thinks I look like a princess? I mean, he called me one earlier but I thought that was part of the joke. "Yeah, this one is my favorite," she said as she fought to control her pink cheeks. "I always really liked the prince."

And just like that, all of the blood left her face as Prince Phillip appeared on the screen. With a startle, Cass realized that Enzo reminded her of Prince Phillip—her first crush maybe ever. He was strong, valiant, charming, and completely handsome. Merlin, he can't find out I ever thought that. He'd think I'm crazy. That's definitely not a thought friends have about each other.

The film continued for a little while before Enzo asked in a husky voice that made Cass hot all over, "Do you watch a lot of films?"

Cass nodded, trying to remind herself she shouldn't be noticing how hard his chest was as her cheek lay against it. "Yeah. My mum's a muggle. She's American so she's super into Hollywood and all the stuff like that. But we were raised in England most of our lives."

"Do you still have family in America or did they all come to England too?"

She smiled to herself. She couldn't remember the last time someone asked her this many questions about herself. Margot already knew everything and Zach never cared to find out. It was one of the many reasons they broke up so long ago. Cass was pretty sure the list was a mile long. "Yeah, actually. It's... uh," she cleared her throat, "It's where we got into the accident."

Enzo tensed. "'We?' I thought only your sister was."

"I- I... can we talk about something else?" Cass cursed the lump that appeared in her throat or the fog that seemed to wrap around her head. This happened anytime she tried to talk about the accident. It was like her mind had locked something she wasn't quite ready to see yet.

Enzo rubbed her shoulder comfortingly before leaning his cheek against the top of her head. This doesn't seem casual, a hopeful part of her said but Cass reminded it that he probably didn't know what he was doing. "We can talk about whatever you want, princess," he muttered under his breath.

Cass felt her entire body flush with just one nickname but she forced herself to remember that he didn't think of her like that. She tried to turn her attention to the movie, which was hard at first but got easier the more she settled into one of her old favorites. It wasn't long before the smile was back on her face as she watched Enzo curse at the television. "No! Why did they have that one do the cake? It's terrible!"

"It's the thought that counts, right?" she said with a grin.

"Not if it's not cooked!" he stammered. "I mean, Briar Rose can't even eat that thing. And that dress is horrible! Honestly, the one she's wearing now is the best one."

Cass giggled at how into it all he got. His face snapped to hers, his lips quirked upward as he stared at her. "You have a beautiful laugh."

"My laugh is horrible!"

Enzo frowned. "Who told you that?"

"My sister. She always made fun of it." Cass hated it at the time but now, she'd do anything to hear Andie mock her just one more time. She supposed you never knew how wonderful something was until you had to live without it. You never knew how much you loved a person until you had to grieve them.

"Well, I think it's wonderful," Enzo whispered, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. The simple action made Cass wonder if butterflies were performing a ballet in her stomach. Tingles crawled up her spine and she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from asking him to do it again. "I hope I can hear it more often."

"Thanks, Enz," she whispered as his fingers ran through her hair and her face snuggled deeper into his chest. "I think your laugh is wonderful too."

And as they continued to watch the film, Cass allowed herself to imagine her own fairytale. One where this boy liked her, one where they spent every night wrapped together like this, one where the princess in real life actually got the prince. It didn't seem like it would ever come true but it was nice to pretend, if for only one night.

Y'all I had a little smile on my face the entire time I wrote about Enzo having a boner from Cass's POV. And Zacharias is just such an asshole, right? I mean, she didn't even recognize what it looked like when a guy was attracted to her. But of course, Enzo is such a sweetheart. I love him. What do y'all think? Especially curious since the next chapter will be from his POV!