Fate and Destiny

Chapter 10

Cassie sat in on the meeting between Gellert and his followers. None of them knew about her job, which was good. Maybe they thought she had inherited her money or something like that.

“You never talk much when there’s other people around,” he said once everyone was gone. It was true, Cassie didn’t talk much when she was around a group of people. “How come?”
“I don’t know,” she said. It wasn’t that she didn’t have anything to say, though that was sometimes the case. “I just don’t like the attention most of the time, I think that’s it.”
“How come?”
Cassie shrugged. “I don’t know, it just makes me nervous.”

“You didn’t seem too nervous the first time you came to one of these meetings,” he said as he walked over to a bookshelf. His fingers ran along the spines as he walked past it.
“Because I had to make a good impression.” And it was true, Cassie couldn’t have let herself seem too nervous in front of his followers. They wouldn’t have respected her otherwise, and while she wasn’t usually going to give orders, she was still technically above all of them.

“You should go home,” he said.
“Are you not going to come with me?” she asked, furrowing her brow as she stood up.
“You want me to? I thought you liked being alone,” he said.
“I do, but I don’t like being alone all of the time. And besides, you’re one of the few people I quite look forward to spending time with.” Albus had been the other one but she hadn’t enjoyed talking to him in years. He hadn’t talked to her much after that summer, and her most recent attempts had been ignored.

“I feel honoured,” he said, turning back towards her.
She smiled. “You should be.”
“Let’s get you home then.”

Cassie was glad to be back in her home. While the meeting usually took place in luxurious places, Cassie liked the simplicity of her small and cozy home. And she liked spending time with Gellert. He had done nothing to hurt her, she hadn’t ever seen him grow impatient or angry with her. In fact, he was quite the opposite.

She poured him a drink like she always did. It was wine this time. He sipped it.
“This is nice, what is it?” he asked. Cassie shrugged and showed him the bottle. She had just picked something that was a decent price and looked alright. “I have something for you.” Cassie raised her eyebrows.
“You do?” she asked. Gellert nodded and started to pull a box from his pocket.
“I was going to give it to you earlier, but we had the meeting and everything,” he said. “But I do have a lot of birthdays and Christmases to make up for.”

Cassie took the box from his outstretched hand, wondering what it was. She opened the box to reveal a silver bracelet. It had a small Deathly Hallows symbol on it and there were runes inscribed onto the other charms and links of the bracelet. They were protective, which meant the bracelet was imbued with protective magic.

“Gellert… this is…” Cassie wasn’t sure what to say. It was stunning. “It’s impressive and… wonderful.”
He smiled. “I thought you might appreciate it. And I’d hate for you to get hurt because of all this.” She smiled back at him as she lifted the bracelet from the box. It was too small to slip over her hand so Gellert helped her fasten it around her wrist.

“Thank you,” she said as she pulled him into a hug. He hugged back and Cassie smiled.
“Are you doing anything else today?” she asked. It was late but he did have things to tend to.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. He drank more of his wine. “Why?”
“Just curious,” Cassie said with a shrug. There was more to it than that, but she still felt unsure in her mind on whether to ask him to stay or not. She still missed spending time with him.

At one point, she had been used to seeing him every single day of the summer. Even when he had to help his great-aunt, Albus and Cassie were usually there to keep him company, with some baked goods for Bathilda so she wouldn’t mind her and Albus being there so much.

He finished his drink and set the glass down near the sink.
“I should get going,” he said as he started to leave. Cassie frowned as he turned away from her. Did she ask him?

“Gellert, wait!” Cassie said, rushing over to him as he left. He paused, his hand on the door handle, and turned to look at her. “Yes?”
“Do you want to stay the night?” she asked hopefully. She might regret it but the worst that could happen was that she would feel awkward if he said no. He looked at her for a moment, his eyes glancing down at her lips before he leaned down to kiss her.

Surprised, Cassie took a few moments to realise what was happening but as soon as she did, she didn’t hesitate to kiss back. Her hands found their way to his hair as the kiss deepened and he pulled her closer.

She never thought anything like this would happen, Cassie had seen how Gellert and Albus had looked at each other, even when they tried to hide it. She was never sure if he only liked men and he had never said.

“I…” Cassie couldn’t think of what she was going to say but Gellert’s smile made her relax.
“I’ll stay the night,” he said softly. Cassie smiled and hugged him. He chuckled as he hugged back.
“I didn’t know if you…”
“I haven’t liked Albus for years, Cassie. I got over those feelings, I had to. He didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“I think he still likes you, Gellert,” she said. He shrugged.
“That’s his problem then, because I don’t like him, not like that, not in the way I like you.”

Cassie smiled and leaned in to kiss him again.