Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

99. Patronus Pals

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE;

PATRONUS PALS

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Cassie — Cassie, wake up!"

If Ron's voice hissing into her ear didn't do the trick, him shaking her vigorously by the shoulders sure did. Cassie awoke instantly, sputtering on about Ron getting the hell out of her face. He took a step back as soon as her eyes were open, though the urgency was still in his expression. Cassie rubbed her eyes.

"What is't?" she slurred, moving to a position in which she was sitting and not staring up at Ron. "'S there a pro'lem?"

"No," said Ron, "but I think we're close!"

"Ron," said Cassie, yawning, "you've been saying that same rubbish for a whole day now. 'S not like we're any closer than we were yesterday."

"Listen!" he encouraged, his voice an excited whisper. Cassie decided to humor him and did so, lifting her head to listen to the nearby sounds of nature.

It was the same noise that Cassie had been hearing since she and Ron left Shell Cottage the day prior: Hermione and Harry's voice calling to the two of them. It was always the same; the same tone, the same word, the same inflection. The only time things ever changed were if Harry said Ron's name or Hermione said Cassie's, but usually it was Harry calling to Cassie and Hermione to Ron.

"It's the same as it always is, Ron," said Cassie, running her fingers through her hair to get the tangles from her sleep out. She cleared her throat. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go try to find a.. a town or something we can stop through, yeah?"

"G'head," said Ron, clearly upset with the fact that his theorizing hadn't gotten him further.

"Stay here." Cassie stood and stretched for a moment before shoving branches of leaves out of her way and heading off into the woods surrounding them. The sun was just coming up when she left, barely peeking over the nearby trees and kissing those in its path with an orangey glow.

She walked on for a while, until the sun had fully risen and was almost directly above her head, yet she had not found a trace of life in any area surrounding their camp. When her stomach growled in protest of a lack of breakfast and lunch, she decided it was a lost cause and returned to where she and Ron had set up.

"Nothing," she called as she approached the camp. "No trace of life anywhere. Bland forest, really—"

She cut herself off upon arrival at the base. Ron was nowhere to be found. All of their stuff still sat undisturbed where Cassie had left it, but Ron seemed to have disappeared without a trace. Cassie's heartbeat began to pick up — this was unlike him. If he was going to leave, he would have done it when Cassie got back, so she would be aware that he was gone. He definitely would not have left, just like that, with no warning..

Perhaps the Snatchers got him. Cassie's breath grew shallow and she clutched her wand so tightly her knuckles grew white. She jogged around the camp, still trying to keep calm — perhaps Ron had just stepped off to take care of business?

After almost a quarter of an hour, she allowed herself to be worried.

"Ron?" she called into the wood, her heart pounding. Her eyes darted around the clearing. Ron was still nowhere to be found. "Ron!"

She tore through the trees, holding her wand in front of her, eyes wide and breath shallow. Nowhere did she spot Ron's familiar head of Ron hair.

But she did spot one thing — one thing that forced her to stop instantaneously, skidding on the leaves beneath her feet. It was a silvery stag Patronus. Harry's Patronus.