Blood Magic ✤ George Weasley ✓

35 - The Great Girlfriend Race

musical mood: female robbery - the neighbourhood

Cass often had a difficult time sleeping. Ever since the Barty and Connor things, as she referred to them in her mind, her nights had been plagued with bad dreams, of everyone around her being tortured and murdered, of Connor screaming how much he hated her, and so forth.

It was one of those nights.

In this dream, she was standing in Connor and Fionn's bedroom, her brothers wand not aimed at her, but aimed at Connor instead, who was cowering on his bed, hugging his knees to his chest and pleading.

The words came out in slow, slurred speech, as though they were talking underwater. Cass couldn't understand a word anyone around her was saying, but she could tell the tone. Connor desperate. Barty threatening.

"Stop!" She ran over, pulling on Barty's arm, trying to aim his wand away from her ex best friend. "Don't hurt him! Please!"

Barty didn't even seem to notice her efforts, as his long wand remained pointed at the blonde boy without so much as a glance at Cass.

"Please stop! Barty, I beg you! Don't hurt him! Please, Barty! Hurt me instead!" She screamed, still trying with all her might to pull him away.

There was a bang from behind them, the sound of the bedroom door flying open, so hard it nearly fell off its hinges. Whoever was at the door, though, Cass would not see, as she jumped out of her dream and into reality with a start.

She was on the floor of her dorm, next to her bed - she must've fallen off in her sleep, breathing heavy, with a metallic taste in her mouth and a pounding headache.

"What the..." Naia rolled over on her bed, awoken by the commotion, tired brown eyes meeting Cass's with a groan. "What's happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm brilliant, sorry. It was just a bad dream, go back to sleep." Cass moved to push herself up to her feet, but a dull pain ran through her right hand, causing her to stumble. Her head was pounding with pain just as bad as her hand, and her vision spun as she moved through the darkness, finding her bed and sitting on it with more effort than it should've taken.

"Right. G'night." Naia yawned, rolling over, her back facing Cass.

*

"Hey Cass!" Cedric waved as she entered the potions classroom the next day, his brown hair pushed back with what Cass assumed was sleekeezy, the weird hair gel that wizard lads used. George was sat across from him, back to his normal, non-donkey self, wearing a knowing smirk, and Adrian Pucey was, as usual, glaring at her. She hardly noticed.

The first half of the day had gone by in a blur for her, full of dull pains in her hand and head, and a complete inability to focus on anything going on around her. No one had seemed to notice, as their exams were coming up soon. Ravenclaws didn't take well to exams, Cass least of all, considering she was taking her potions OWLs this year.

"Hey." She greeted a beat too late, sitting down next to him with a wonky grin. Smiling made her head hurt even more, and she bit down on her tongue.

Cedric blinked, his expression morphing into one of concern. "Are you alright?"

"Er...I think so?"

"You think so?"

She nodded, the motion sending another stab of pain into her skull. She instinctively rubbed the back of her head with her right hand, the one that was in just as much, if not more pain, and flinched at the impact.