Wolfsbane // Neville Longbottom

Chapter 25: Harry Potter

The trip to Ron and Hermione had been great but not long after, it was time to get back to work. But work wasn't the only thing Cassie had to look forward to. The last weekend of April, Harry Potter was going to come over to Hogwarts and talk with her.

She had been working for almost two weeks on perfecting her ideas, her statement to him and her questions and doubts. She had asked her aunt Lydia if she could contact her friend with lycanthropy to ask some more questions about the Italian Ministry's policies and he replied with a detailed letter explaining his situation.

If the British Ministry of Magic was taking action to limit werewolf attacks and so lycanthropy infections, they had better arrange it the way the Italian Ministry of Magic had. She wasn't going to let herself and other people in the same boat as her get locked up in a concrete box.

Neville, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey had been of great help building her case. Madam Pomfrey probably had the most knowledge about treating werewolf wounds, McGonagall was a smart, stern woman, people listened to her, and Neville was helping her research anything they could find and properly word how she felt about the situation.

Cassie had been nervous about her meeting with Harry all week. What if he didn't understand? What if he genuinely wanted to follow the Ministry's rules as closely as possible? What if he couldn't do anything? What if he would kill her right away? No, Cassie. He would never do that, she thought, right?

She was happy that she had her classes to keep her busy and distracted so her thoughts couldn't go into a constant spiral of 'What-If's'. But when Saturday morning finally arrived, she couldn't get a single bite down her throat even though she felt incredibly hungry.

"Cass, you need to eat something," Neville whispered to her as she stared at her full plate. She nodded and lifted up her fork. Her mind was spinning and her stomach was tied in a knot. She was so nervous.

"Cassie, are you alright?" Hannah asked her worriedly. "If you feel sick I could get you a potion."

"I'm fine. Just a little nervous," she said quickly before taking a bite of her sausage. It didn't taste as good as it usually did. She could barely get it down. Her throat felt tight and her heart was racing.

"You look rather pale. I assure you, it's no issue if I go grab you something real quick," Hannah tried again. Cassie and Hannah weren't exactly friends. Hannah wanted to spend a lot of time with Neville, a lot, and Cassie didn't like that.

She didn't mind the friendship between Hannah and Neville, not at all. She minded the way Hannah treated Neville though. She minded the way she was always fluttering her eyelashes at him, laughing too loudly at his jokes, clinging onto his arm, showing interest when she knew damn well that he was with Cassie.

Neville seemed oblivious to Hannah's flirtatious behaviour. Cassie had asked him about it and he genuinely hadn't noticed. She trusted Neville and she knew he would never go along with it, but she didn't really trust Hannah anymore.

"I'm fine," she said and turned to Flitwick next to her. "Filius, do you have any plans for today?" she asked him, trying to start a conversation to distract herself and to let Hannah know she wasn't in the mood to be questioned.

Cassie didn't want to feel this jealousy and scepticism but she couldn't turn it off. She knew that she wasn't being exactly nice to Hannah due to it but Hannah was giving her enough dirty looks whenever Neville kissed her cheek and grabbed her hand so she didn't care.

She talked to Flitwick for the rest of breakfast until the clock hit nine-thirty and she walked over to her office with Neville. Harry was coming at ten o'clock and she wanted to freshen up a little bit and calm down her nerves before his arrival.