slide away {lorenzo berkshire}

35. (you drive me) crazy

"I have this strange feeling that I'm not myself anymore. It's hard to put into words, but I guess it's like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling."
- Haruki Murakami

~~~~~~

Cassie Avery

The Room of Requirement was suffocating, the only sound being the turning of pages and Draco muttering under his breath. I'm supposed to be helping but I can't bring myself to focus.

I hate how Enzo has occupied my mind. We haven't talked in two months. Two months of awkward glances. Two months of pretending we don't know each other. Two months of silence.

I had bigger problems to worry about anyway. I absently ran my fingers over the dark mark on my arm, hidden beneath my sleeve. Cheers mum.

"Earth to Cassie," Theo's voice broke through my thoughts. "You've been staring at that page for ten minutes. You okay?".

"Yep. Sensational," I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I love spending my free time fixing ancient magical artifacts against my will."

"We have to focus", Draco scowled. "The Dark Lord is not renowned for his patience".

"You know what, Draco? It is exactly that sunny deposition that makes this whole death eater thing more bearable", I snapped. "Thank you so much for always keeping our spirits so high".

Theo snorted as Draco rolled his eyes. I knew I was being a bitch but it was like I couldn't stop myself. I just felt so fucking angry all the time.

"Right," Theo pulled himself up slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. "Maybe we should take a break. Go back to the dorm and get drunk or something."

Draco scoffed. "Because getting drunk is really going to help us fix this thing, Theo."

"We're not making any progress anyway, Draco," Theo retorted. "A break might do us some good."

I shrugged. Anything to get out of here. "Sure."

We left Draco behind, ignoring his grumbling about us slacking off.

Theo eventually cut through the silence. "I'm worried about you, Cass".

"Don't. I'm fine", I shrugged, even though we both knew that wasn't the truth.

"Cassie-"

"Theo", I cut him off before he could question me any further. "I'm fine".

"Okay...", he admitted defeat, before one of his infamous smirks crept up on his face. "I know something that will cheer you up".

"Oh yeah?".

"He thinks you hexed him," Theo placed a cigarette between his lips without his amusement faltering. "Apparently, he can't, uh... finish with another girl since you."

I pretended not to be interested. But deep down, a tiny twinge of satisfaction danced within me. I couldn't help it.

The moment I had stepped foot inside the common room, Onyx practically pounced on me. "Where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere".

"We were, uh... studying", I glanced at Theo out the corner of my eye. "What's wrong?".

"You need to sit down for this", she whispered, her eyes wide as she led me over to the couches.

"What's happened?", I braced myself. I'm not sure how much more I could take on top of everything else.

"Right... don't go crazy but, there's a rumour going around about...", she trailed off, clearly trying to choose her next words carefully.