𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 || 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲

12. the full moon

 Once Cass was able to fall asleep, the rest of the day passed by rather quickly. Cathleen didn't even have to ask Iris to take notes for, the redhead knowingly took notes for her sick friend, glad that Cass decided to stay up in the dorms. Karolin had given Cass a few worried looks, but didn't say much on the matter that Cass looked far from one hundred percent.

"Hey, Cass." Iris stood above Cass laying in her bed. Cathleen groaned as she woke and slowly sat up in her bed. "I brought you something to eat." Iris placed a plate of mashed potatoes and ham on Cass's bedside along with a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Oh, thank you." Cass rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and moved her body to position herself facing her supper. "What time is it?"

"Five till' seven." The sun would set around seven fifty tonight, but she planned to get herself out to the Shrieking Shack ten minutes before that.

"Ok. Did you already eat?"

"Yeah, in the Great Hall. I didn't want to wake you up though, so."

"Well, I appreciate that. Thanks." Cass put a fork full of mashed potatoes in her mouth and mixed it with some garlic sauce that Iris took the liberty to add on the side of her plate.

"No problem, I'm glad you took my advice and got some rest."

"I'm glad I did too. McGonagall told me I should."

"So, you're saying if Professor McGonagall hadn't told you to sleep, you wouldn't have even though I told you the same thing this morning?" Cass gave Iris a playful smile to show her glint of disobedience.

"I probably would have conked out during class, if you count that." Cass shoved another forkful of mashed potatoes into her mouth, but as she looked over to Iris, she saw that the redhead's smile had turned upside down.

"Cass, just- I just want you to take care of your health, kay?" Cass could tell that Iris was worried, she was glad that Karolin hadn't said anything about her curse yet because it was nice for Cass to keep the normality of Karolin's attitude as well as having Iris look out for Cass's well-being.

Cass paused for a moment before responding to Iris. She felt bad that she hadn't been taking her sickness as seriously as Iris hoped she would. It was like she had just pulled out the disappointment card on Cass because the sick girl decided to go to her class.

"Thanks, Iris." Cass swallowed down another piece of ham, "I don't want you to worry, I'll be fine in a couple days and we'll be able to go down to Hogsmeade this weekend or something." Cass knew that Iris couldn't figure out about her curse because only shitty things would follow if a Hogwarts student found out that a werewolf was living within the safe walls. A literal monster who attempted to kill humans once a month. Cass just wished that Tonks was an Animagus, but Cass wouldn't place the burden on Tonks, or anyone else for that matter. Tonks had a life to live and shouldn't be cooped up taking care of some werewolf who probably would never be able to make a career for herself with all the anti-werewolf media and hate surrounding half-breeds in the wizarding world.

"You alright, Cass?" Cathleen must have spaced out for a bit, thinking about how a monster like herself could ever make a living.

"Peachy!" Cass smiles weakly and held up two thumbs for a second before letting them fall back to her lap where her half eaten meal laid, "I was just thinking about how much hate there is in the world."

"Yeah, being a muggle-born witch myself, I get a fair share of it." Iris thinks on the matter for a moment. "You said you were a half-blood. Was it your mother or father who had magic?"

"They both might have. I never knew my father or anything about him. My mom had taken me and her to America in order to escape the fir- the wizarding war. She was a witch." Cass stumbled on her words. People in this time period did not yet know that there would be an upcoming second war, believing that all corrupted witches and wizards of the 1970s had either died or ended up in Azkaban. They believed that baby Harry Potter had caused the downfall of the Dark Lord and if Voldemort would never return, how could there possibly be a second wizarding war?