When we align; a Neville Longbottom fanfiction

17. A secret meeting

 About two weeks into the term, Hermione Granger approached Cass.

"Hi." She had said, looking rather uncomfortable.

Cass matched her demeanour when she greeted her, looking around to see if anyone was around.

"I was wondering if you..." Granger was looking at her own feet but seemed decisive to speak to her. "If you wanted to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

Cass blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well, do you?" Granger insisted, looking at her.

"Yeah, of course, but how..?"

"Don't worry about that yet. We're going to meet at the Hog's Head on the first Hogsmeade weekend, all right?" She started to leave, but Cass stopped her.

"Can I bring someone along?" She felt like it was better to ask first. From Granger's behaviour, her proposal seemed something sketchy, to say the least. Besides, if the mud-blood was in on it, the company wouldn't be much better. "My brother, and my friends Daphne and Blaise. I'm sure they would like to learn too."

"Maybe not this time." Granger replied, shivering at her proposal. "But we'll see." She added, albeit not very convincingly.

And so, on the first Saturday of October, Cass was making her way down to the Hog's Head, wondering what she had gotten herself into. She was on the verge of turning around and going back to the castle when a familiar voice called her.

"Cassandra Nott, fancy meeting you here!" Terry Boot was waving his arm and approached her with a warm smile.

"Terry, hi!" She beamed. "What are you doing here?" They had reached the entrance of the pub and stopped at the door.

"I'm surprised to see you here, actually. I didn't see you as the type who hangs around Potter and Granger."

"I'm not." Cass said, defensively. "I just want to see what this is about."

"Don't we all?" Another Ravenclaw, whom Cass recognised as Anthony Goldstein, chimed in, appearing beside Terry.

A small crowd was starting to form. Among them, Cass noticed that Neville, Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley and Hannah Abbott were there as well, and waved hello to the first.

At last, Fred and George Weasley, accompanied by Lee Jordan, stopped behind them.

"Shall we?" Asked Cass with her hand on the grimy handle.

"Go for it." Called one of the twins.

Cass pushed the door open. The tavern smelled like it hadn't seen the light of day in a century, humid and mouldy. She took a few steps forward to allow the others to enter as well, taking in her surroundings. Two peculiar figures had frozen in their spots and were observing the group: a man with thick bandages covering his face, a slit only big enough to allow him to drink; and a heavily veiled witch. Feeling Cass' eyes on them, they shuffled and kept drinking.

"Hi." Said the other twin, greeting the barman, someone with white hair and a thick beard. "Could we have . . . twenty-five butterbeers, please?"

The barman limited himself to nodding and began passing them the bottles. He had a familiar face, although Cass couldn't picture who he reminded her of. Someone passed her a bottle and she handed them some coins to pay. She then spotted Harry, Hermione and Ron sitting at a table nearby.

Making her way to them, she was approached by Neville and Terry and took her place between them. When everyone had sat down, Hermione began to talk. The plan was to learn real defensive spells, to practice them, to be ready for the real world. To be ready for Voldemort.