Moonstruck | marauders era

vi. midnight's swim

     A throbbing pain in her head made Cassie groan. She was freezing and her head felt like it was about to explode. A huff left her throat as her palm pressed against her temple rubbing it carefully. She tried to remember the night of the full moon but the last thing she could recall was the frightening close passageway, torches and a silver glimmer.

When she opened her eyes she found herself in the very same passageway and for a short moment she tried to convince herself that this was a good sign. Maybe they all fell asleep and she felt cold because she was laying on the cold stone of the castle. And maybe her head hurt from not having brought her pillow.

She was proved otherwise.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty." Cassie tiredly looked up and met the worried eyes of her friend. "You are you again, right?"

Cassie chose to ignore her last comment and huffed, "How do you know muggle fairytales?"

Skyler grinned knowing her friend was back, "How do you?"

The Hufflepuff shrugged. "Grace made me read them."

"Yeah, me too. I think she made us all read them." Cassie nodded and crossed her legs, biting her lip nervously.

"So I guess I went fully mermaid crazy last night?"

Skyler raised her hand with her thumb and pointer finger almost touching. "Just a little," she whispered with a small sarcastic smile set on her lips before she moved her hand to point at the corner leading to the window. "There's a window around the corner and the lake is right behind it. It's like Danas description of their common room. We're under the water here, the moon shined right through it." Cassie huffed again and moved her hand through her hair to try to dentangle it a little. Skyler took it as a sign to continue the story about the previous night.

"You went out to go for a swim and dared us to join. We tried to stop you but Merlin," Skyler paused for a second."You're creepy in your crazy mermaid state, Cass"

She glared at Skyler playfully shoving her shoulder. "Thanks."

Skyler gave her a small grin before she continued. "Well, you attacked us. The crazy thing is that you didn't use your wand. You controlled water with your hands and shot it at us. Not to forget your creepy eyes."

"What?" Cassie shook her head dismissing her friends' ridiculous story.

"Your eyes. They flashed a dark blue when you did your little magic-water trick. After we brought you back inside Noah mentioned he saw it back in Australia, too, when you first turned."

"That's impossible."

Skyler scoffed. "Says the mermaid witch."

》•《

The morning went by with the girls sneaking back to their commonrooms, getting dressed and ready for the day, eating breakfast and going to their first class. It was all a routine so Cassie functioned like she had to but her mind was never at the task at hand. Her headache was killing her, the story of herself controlling water like it was nothing robbing her sanity, and the desire to go for a swim was still present in her normal state.

It was like her body arched for water, a new necessity added to her human basic needs. Her lungs felt like closing in second by second, only an inch but enough for her to feel it. To notice the air not filling them up.

What brought her out of her mind back to the real world was Professor Slughorns voice after their potion lesson.

"Miss Grady, I would like to have a talk with you if you don't mind." She frowned at her professor and his cheerful attitude and gave him a slight nod. She had thought he wanted to talk about her sleeping with open eyes in his class but she was proved wrong for the second time that morning.