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CASSIOPEIA HAD BEEN NOTICEABLY HAPPIER OVER THE COURSE OF THE FOLLOWING WEEK. She was over the moon that she and Ron had patched things up. They were taking it slow, of course, but they were something again. Stolen kisses in broom closets and hand-holding during late-night Prefect rounds had become a normal thing between them. Ron would sneak glances at Cassiopeia during their classes together and then pretend he hadn't been caught, much to Harry and Hermione's amusement. Cassiopeia found herself smiling at him from across the room at times before she caught herself.
She wanted to be with Ron all the time but it was hard since their professors were assigning more and more homework every day and they barely had any Prefect duties together. She spent most of her time in the library or the Slytherin Common Room, participating in study groups. Her father was expecting all Outstandings and she knew that her punishment would be much worse than polishing silver if she brought home anything less.
Other than their classes, broom closet meet-ups, and the one round of Perfect duties they had, Cassiopeia had only seen Ron once. She found him sitting at a secluded table in the back of the library with Harry and Hermione. A smile broke out on Cassiopeia's face when she saw him. He was sitting at their table.
She spent the rest of the evening studying with the golden trio until the library closed. Ron had looped their ankles together underneath the table and Cassiopeia tried not to blush and listen to what Hermione was saying about Herbology. Though, she couldn't contain herself when Ron gave her a kiss on the cheek before she left.
Her newfound sense of euphoria was washed away however during breakfast one morning. Cassiopeia had been sitting with Draco, Blaise, and Daphne in the Great Hall as usual. Pansy had stopped sitting with them at the beginning of term and Thalia and Zethus had been hanging around the Quidditch Team and the older students more often. The mail delivery arrived right as Cassiopeia began to spread raspberry jam on her slice of toast and a copy of Daily Prophet was dropped in Daphne's lap.
The blonde girl had taken one look at the newspaper before she let out a gasp and covered her hands with her mouth. Blaise furrowed his eyebrows at his girlfriend's actions and grabbed the paper. His eyes widened. Cassiopeia asked confusedly, "What is it?"
"It's horrible," Daphne said as she handed Cassiopeia the paper.
The moment she saw the headline, Cassiopeia felt her stomach sink and she no longer had any appetite for her toast. Ten black-and-white moving photographs filled the whole front page, nine were showing wizards' faces and the tenth, a witch's. Some of the people in the pictures were jeering and others looked insolent as they held their placards. Each picture was captioned with a name and a description of the crime that had got them sent to Azkaban Prison.
There was a man with small scars all over his face and greasy hair who leaned against the edge of his picture, looking incredibly bored. Augustus Rookwood, the caption beneath the photo said, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
