𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 | f. weasley

fourteen

UNFORTUNATELY FOR BOTH of them, that weekend hadn't been a dream and they were forced to serve detention on the coming Thursday. Harry (and occasionally Ron), thankfully, resumed conversations with her after a few days. Although they (Ron mainly) were a little hostile, Harry was considerably kinder to Cassandra. Cassie was surprised that Harry had been kind enough to let her relation with the mass murderer be and continue being friends with her and was extremely grateful for the same. She did not want to lose any more people she cared about.

Harry had a hearty laugh when Cassandra told him about how she wound up in detention alongside Fred. Every time he would glance at the Weasley twins, he would begin smirking to himself earning playful smacks from an annoyed (yet smiling) Cassie.

Transfiguration, the last class of Thursday, just didn't seem to end that day and neither did Cassie want it to. She wanted it to go as long as it could go. Resting her head on her hands, she watched Professor McGonagall teach to the exhausted group of students who checked the clock and their watches every passing minute. Seeing it would be fruitless to teach a disinterested class, she let out a dramatic sigh and dismissed the class. Cassandra however stayed behind, with the excuse of tripping over her bag and spilling its content. She was trying her best to procrastinate her detention. As she slowly collected her books and quills around the floor, she found herself to be the only student left in the classroom with the professor seated on her desk, shuffling through their recently submitted essays.

"I came to hear that you will be serving detention today, Miss Black?" said Professor McGonagall, looking up from the papers she was correcting.

"Yes Professor," Cassie mumbled sadly, picking up and slinging her bag onto her shoulders.

"Over public morale offences?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow, her lips curving into a smirk, "Never pinned you as a person to be doing such a thing at the age of thirteen,"

"Oh no Professor," Cassandra exclaimed immediately, her cheeks turning bright red out of embarrassment, "Fred and I were simply watching the sunset at the Black Lake and we lost track of time and crossed my curfew. We were heading up to the tower but then we heard Filch somewhere on the fifth floor and if I would have been seen with Fred, I would easily be understood to be involved in some prank so we hid in a broom cupboard and then we ended getting stuck inside and since I've not yet mastered all sorts of non-verbal spells, I had to say the incantation out loud which caught Filch's attention and then he put us into detention – which we deserved, not 'we' just me because Fred's curfew wasn't till an hour later – but under a completely incorrect reason! We weren't performing any sort of public morale offence!"

Cassandra had been rambling with such speed and flustered expressions, Minerva McGonagall could not help but crack a smile for Cassie reminded her so much of her mother. She simply waved at the girl as though saying all was forgiven and Cassie was not in her bad books. Cassandra walked out of the classroom with a grateful smile to find Fred Weasley leaning against the door's archway, grinning to himself while humming some tune.

"What?" she asked when he maintained his cheeky grin on looking at her. He was still leaning against brick castle walls, one of his feet resting on the archway while the other stayed in contact with the ground. His hands were tucked in his pockets and his white shirt had been messily tucked in – considering one half of it was out of his pants. His robe was neatly folded and placed around his arm and was hanging quite fashionably over the crook formed between his hand stuffed in the pockets and the pants. His tie, however, had been so badly tied, Cassandra was fighting such an urge to immediately correct it. Pulling her attention from his stupor and tie, she looked up at his face expectantly.

"You ramble cutely," Fred laughed. He was a man with no filter when it came to girls he liked – in a friendly way or otherwise – and he believed it to be his job to tell them the truth because other boys didn't seem to 'do it correctly'. Cassandra's cheeks began heating upon hearing him say that so she just took off without a word, towards Filch's office.

"Oi, wait up," Fred called out, immediately following her with a chuckle. It surprised him, how fast and briskly she walked for her height. Despite a head taller than her and having long legs for his age, he was practically jogging to reach up to her.

"Did I offend you, Black?" Fred asked genuinely, now stopping her at her tracks by jumping in front of her.

"Absolutely not," she said, looking up to him with a straight face.

"Then why did you just walk away," he said with a confused expression.

"Because we are late," Cassie replied sternly, her pace increasing in speed making Fred practically run to catch up with her again.

"You walk way too fast," Fred chuckled, finally reaching and adjusting himself to Cassie's pace.

"Force of habit," she muttered in return, taking a turn to climb up the stairs. 

Fred shrugged in return, seeing she was not in the mood to converse with him at the moment and followed her up the stairs.

Just as they reached the second landing, Cassandra halted abruptly, causing Fred (who had been following her mindlessly) to crash into the girl, making her stumble ahead. While the ginger boy managed to steady himself, Cassie had not expected him to be trailing so close behind her, and therefore stumble right into the magicked step. 

Her one foot was almost in when Fred, with his fast reflexes, looped his arm around the girl's waist, singlehandedly, pulling her out before she fell three floors down. Cassie clung onto him for her dear life as he carefully placed her onto the landing.

Fred didn't let go of her – his hand was still placed delicately on her waist as he looked at Cassie to see if she was alright – and Cassie (surprisingly) didn't mind.

"You alright, love?" Fred asked hesitantly, looking down at the girl who was still breathing erratically.

Cassie nodded, finally looking up to meet Fred's coffee brown orbs he had inherited from his mother.

He smiled back at her and slid his hand into hers, interlocking their fingers. Much to both of their pleasant surprise, Cassie didn't tense up and pull away. Taking this as a positive sign, Fred continued to climb the stairs.

Cassie noticed how his hand, although being much larger than hers, fit perfectly into hers. His hands were warm and surprisingly soft. His touch was delicate and sweet, giving her a sense of surety that she wasn't going to be left alone – at least not by him.

They were a few doors away from Filch's office when Fred stooped. He turned to face Cas, his hand still locked with her's and asked,

"You ready?"

"Hopefully," Cassie shrugged, pressing her lips together.

"It's not really that bad you know?" Fred said, squeezing her hand softly.

"It's not about getting detention," she explained to the ginger, "It's the fact that the reason for why I got it, is absolutely false. If Filch would have written 'out of bed after curfew' I wouldn't have minded it. But public morale offences?"

Fred chuckled at the way Cassie's face grimaced on saying their 'offence'.

"Don't laugh! It's not funny!" she scolded, pulling out her hand and softly punching him in the stomach.

"It's not," Fred admitted, raising his hand in the air, "But you are,"

Cassie's mouth dropped open and she once again began punching him. Fred was having a hard time controlling his laughter and shielding himself from her strong fists at the same time.

"Hem, hem," someone cleared their throat from in front of them. The two kids spun their head towards the noise to find Filch standing in front of his office with Mrs Norris in his hand.

"Get in," he commanded, and the two followed him, without another word.