Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

32. A Fiery Conversation

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO;

A Fiery Conversation.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

With all the chaos that had sudden upped Cassie's stress-levels, she was glad that at least Harry had stayed somewhat the same.

He'd tracked her down in the common room, calling her name with an excitement that told her he couldn't have been asking her about the Tournament. She was growing—actually, she'd been sick of the Tournament talk, since the moment it'd begun.

She slipped her finger into her book and offered him a smile. "Alright, Harry?"

"Sirius wrote us." He held a piece of parchment into her face, unable to hide his smile. "He wants to see us. In person."

Cassie bit the insides of her cheek to stop from grinning. It had been ten full days since the afternoon in Dumbledore's office when she had last seen Sirius, and she was loads ready to be able to catch him up on... everything.

She skimmed the letter.

Ten days prior, on the same day Cassie met with Sirius, an article had been published in The Daily Prophet that exploited her for all she was worth – claiming she was a poor, starved, twelve-year-old girl who was pitied by all and still cried himself to sleep because her father was beggarly. Hermione had laughed at the absurdity of it, and Harry had even offered a chuckle, but Cassie could not get past the lump of shame in her throat.

And it was worser still when she got to the last paragraph and read a hint about how the interviewer had picked up on a blossoming romance between herself and the other Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory.

   Safe to say, anyway, that she had had a tough week. Ron still was not on speaking terms with her; and now he'd dragged Harry and Hermione into it, as well, only responding to their simple questions in snappy answers. He spent most of his days wallowing with Dean and Seamus.

   On the other hand, Cassie had taken a liking to hexing the Slytherin girls who made fun of Hermione's appearance; girls like Pansy Parkinson, who had the nerves to say foul things straight to Hermione's face. She'd gotten particularly skilled at the Knee-Reversal hex, and even managed to do it non-verbally once.

   On top of all of this, the first task was approaching. She was still clueless as to what it could be, and stressing about it did her no good.

   The Saturday before the first task was a Hogsmeade weekend. Hermione decided for Cassie that it would be good for her to get away from the castle for a bit, and Harry didn't seem to want to disagree.

   "What about Ron?" Cassie asked while the three of them stood in the common room, preparing to leave. "Wouldn't you wanna go with him?"

   "Oh, well.." Hermione went pink at the cheeks. "I thought we might meet up with him in the Three Broomsticks.."

   "No," said Harry flatly.

"Oh," Hermione waved her hands, "I just thought this whole thing is so stupid—"

"I'll come," Harry decided, "but I'm not meeting Ronald. And I'm taking the Cloak."

   And he disappeared up the stairs to fetch his Invisibility Cloak, and that was that.

   The Three Broomsticks was packed with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon, but also with a variety of witches and wizards in town for the first task. Hundreds had traveled in to watch the Tournament, and hundreds were whispering about the underage wizard from Hogwarts. How had he gotten in? Would he really compete? How was that fair for the other schools?