way to go, tiger | Lorenzo Berkshire

࣪𖤐 Y4 | 6 . A long time coming

LIKE REAL PEOPLE DO — HOZIER
'Honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips. We should just kiss like real people do.'

Cassie's heart thumps in her chest at the mention of her dads' names. How and why did he know their names? "Anyways, give me a curse." Moody mutters.

"Uh, my dad— Amos, did tell me about one. The imperius curse." Cassie says slowly.

"Amos, ay? Good man he was, better than Remus, anyway, the wolf freak." he replies. The anger boils on top of Cassie's pacing heartbeat.

"Keep his name out your mouth." she spits, not really caring how he'd react.

"Cassie..." Harry whispers.

"I see that you've got Sirius' attitude then! Sit down." Moody scowls. Cassie sighs deeply and sits back down.

"What just happened?" Harry whispers.

"You tell me. How the fuck did he know about that? Now everybody else knows!" she retorts, trying to ignore all of the whispers with her name in. She puts her head in her hands as Moody carries on. She isn't listening. She can't.

She focuses on the low murmur of the students. Her heightened sense of hearing makes it much easier to hear the whispers.

Moody is mid-explaining when Mattheo stands up. "Keep Cassie's name out of your dirty mouths or I swear to you, you'll wish you never said anything." Mattheo exclaims, silencing the classroom. Cassie turns around and weakly-smiles at him.

"Riddle! Forty points from Slytherin! Sit back down!" Moody shoots at Mattheo. Mattheo sits back down and he smiles at Cassie for reassurance.

"You okay?" Harry whispers.

Cassie shakes her head, "I need to get out of here." She hears every single whisper in the room. She covers her ears to drown them out, but it doesn't help. She can hear her heartbeat pacing in her palms, as they sweat with nerves.

"Better stay away from her, she's probably a murderer like her dad." Cassie hears someone whisper from the back of the classroom. She has to bite her bottom lip to stop herself from saying anything.

"No wonder she's a slytherin, she's a Black after all." another whispers. She has enough. Cassie does have limits, you see. She gathers her books and violently shoves them into her bag. She stands up and leaves the classroom without a word.

Cassie slams the heavy door behind her and makes her way down the many stairs. She can't send a message to Cedric because he's in lesson, so he wouldn't be able to help. Enzo and anyone else that Cassie would go to for help is also in lesson. She doesn't want to disturb Madame Pomfrey because she has enough to do already— she probably didn't want to put up with Cassie's troubles.

As soon as Cassie gets to the bottom of the steps, she leans against the stone cold wall and lets herself fall into the ground. She puts her head in her hands but refuses to let herself cry. It's embarrassing, she shouldn't be crying over something like this. Moody can't make her weak. Plus, she isn't upset. She's angry. Cassie couldn't stand up for her dad because then everyone would know that she had been in contact with him. She had no choice but to listen to them.

Little does Cassie know, her friends are in that classroom defending her with their lives. Enzo shouts things like "Mind your own bloody business!", whilst Draco is a little more blunt with it... "You say one more thing and I'll cut your throat.", and Mattheo and Theo throw threats and insults around the room.

She tries to take deep breaths to calm down her racing pulse but it just doesn't work. She's almost hyperventilating. What's wrong with her? She's not weak. Moody won't make her weak. "Cassie, are you okay?" Enzo exclaims, running down the stairs.