SuperPotterLock - The Order of the Phoenix

The Eye of the Snake

Dean wasn't expecting to see Cas the next morning, after the stressful night they'd had, so he was surprised to find Cas waiting for him in the common room.

'Good morning, Dean,' Cas said quietly, lightly brushing his hand against Dean's. 'Will you go to breakfast with me?'

'Sure,' Dean grinned, feeling his cheeks burn.

On the way down to the Great Hall, Cas linked his little finger with Dean's until they reached the bottom of the stairs.

It had snowed even more overnight, and they watched Hermione carve a path through the drifts to Hagrid's cabin.

Dean sat close to Cas while he did his best to eat, and not saying anything when all Cas could manage was a few bites of a solitary piece of toast.

When he was finished, they both went to recover their notes that allowed them out of the castle, first going to Madam Pomfrey for Cas's, then Professor McGonagall for Dean's.

'What on earth happened to your first one?' she asked, as she wrote out a fresh one.

Dean glanced at Cas, and pushed as much of his anger away as he could.

'Professor Umbridge believed it to be a forgery,' he said stiffly. 'She gave us detention as well, do you think you could...?'

Professor McGonagall sighed. 'Educational Decree Number Twenty-five gives the High Inquisitor "supreme authority over all punishments, sanctions and removal of privileges pertaining to the students of Hogwarts",' she said. 'I'm sorry, I can't help you with that.'

Dean nodded and took the new note from her, leading Cas from the room.

'How are you?' he asked.

Cas shrugged.'I've felt worse,' he said. 'Would you help me with a potion today?'

'Sure, which one?'

'The antidote to Fred and George's Fainting Fancies. I have a feeling we'll be needing it.'

'You wanna do a potion not even on the syllabus?' Dean grinned. 'Someone's feeling good today.'

'I have my reasons,' said Cas, gently holding Dean's hand.

It was too cold to make the potion outside, so they set up Cas's cauldron in an empty classroom.

Though his hands shook as he added ingredients, Dean watched Cas make the potion with pride. In such a short amount of time, Cas had already made great improvements. They spent much of the day relaxing once the potion was finished, only making an effort to go on Cas's patrol. Towards the end of the day, however, Cas became much more withdrawn, and let go of Dean's hand. Dean knew that he was already thinking of their detention the next day. This became more obvious to Dean when Cas refused dinner and walked silently to the hospital wing.

'I'll see you in Charms tomorrow,' Dean said, as he said goodnight to Cas.

Cas nodded, and kissed Dean's hand. 'See you tomorrow,' he murmured.

Castiel's worsening mood was even more evident on Monday morning, when he didn't appear for breakfast, though Dean was not surprised by this at all. They went about their day as usual, and Dean was pleased to feel Cas softly hold his hand under the desk during Charms.

'I'm worried they won't want me on the Ravenclaw team anymore, if I miss too many practice sessions this week,' Cas confessed to him at lunch.

'Dude,' Dean said incredulously, 'the way you flatten the other teams, they'd never want you to leave.'