Blood Magic ✤ George Weasley ✓

24 - To Fancy Or Not To Fancy

musical mood: generation - triples

The owls came in early on Christmas morning, bearing all sorts of odd gifts and waking her up from a dream about the heir of Slytherin being George Weasley, and he went around petrifying people while he wore Cass's father's top hat.

This time around for Christmas, Cass had thought in advance, and bought each one of her Hogwarts friends a gift as well, not just Connor.

She received two chocolates frog from the Nott brothers, more mood-enhancing gemstones from the Patil's, a fancy brush that apparently washed and dried your hair while brushing it from Lavender, a pair of earrings from Naia, and, her personal favourite, from George and Fred; a copy of Pride and Prejudice. She bit down on her lip, grinning, when reading the message they'd scribbled on the inside cover.

To Cassie,

Happy Christmas! Don't be too lascivious without us.

Love,

George & Fred

P.S. potion is going great. No one is dead yet.

Part of her still felt uncomfortable, from the revelation the other night via drunk Dahlia, that the twins had been the one to find her when she had been...

She didn't know why it upset her so much, and didn't care to think too much into it. Thinking about it only upset her more, and she'd moved on, so what point was there to dwell on it?

She always found herself rationalizing that she was over it, forcing it into her brain, yet it never seemed to stick. If she had truly moved on, why was that event still plaguing her nightmares?

Whatever. She shook her head. It didn't matter anymore.

Just as Cass was about to go downstairs to whatever breakfast Winky had made, something she could already smell, another owl appeared at the window, pecking on the glass impatiently, a small package in its beak.

"Hey little guy." She tilted her head, letting the owl in and opening the package, ignoring the snow that blew into her room. "What do you have for me, aye?"

With gentle hands, she pulled out a tiny silver necklace, with a green coloured gemstone she didn't know the name of at the end, from the envelope, with an even tinier note attached to it. Inside, a simple message was scribbled down in neat, formal handwriting, far nicer than Cass's

Happy Christmas Cass! It was nice talking to you the other night.

-C

For a moment, Cass assumed the letter had been from Connor, because what other 'C' did she know, but no, his handwriting was terrible, and he was a muggle, he didn't use owl post!

It was nice talking to you last night...

Holy shit.

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

It was from Cedric.

Cedric had sent her a bloody Christmas gift!

Cass took a deep, shaky breath, trying to calm her racing heart. Why would he do that? She hadn't gotten him anything! Were they friends now? Bloody hell, was she friends with Cedric fucking Diggory?

She didn't know why thinking about this made her heart race so fast, she was afraid she might combust, just like she didn't know why he'd been stuck on her mind for so many months. What was so special about Cedric Diggory, after all?

Sure, he was older, good looking, popular, incredibly nice and selfless and truly had no business speaking to someone as basic and peremptory as Cass...but still!