Memories Of Them

Chapter 8- The Delegation

After signing their names onto the piece of parchment hanging outside of Madame Devereux's office the group of friends could only wait to see if their names would be picked. Cassie spent the following couple of weeks excitedly daydreaming about all of the adventures the group of friends could embark upon. If picked she couldn't wait to explore all of the places from Kingsley's stories, she could sit on the shores of the black lake in summer or grab a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks with her friends just like he had. However, there was a constant nagging thought at the back of her mind that put a damper on her mood whenever she contemplated the prospect of attending Hogwarts for the year, the Weasleys. The dull ache she felt in her chest whenever she thought about her former best friends only hightented when she considered seeing them again. She realised it had been almost five years since they had last seen each other; they were practically strangers now, she knew she had changed and matured throughout her time at Beauxbatons and she couldn't help but wonder how they had changed. After a particularly bad night's sleep where she had tossed and turned worrying about every possible variation of their reunion she broke.

"I'm going to go and ask Madame Devereux to cross my name off of the list, I don't want to go," she said, throwing herself onto Libby's bed that afternoon and burying her face in her soft down comforter.

"What! You can't do that! What about exploring the castle and finding hot foreign boyfriends!" squawked Bonnie from across the room, throwing her potions essay aside and scrambling through the mess of books and quills on her bed.

"Cassie, what's got you so riled up Sweet?" asked Libby sitting beside Cassie and gently running her finger through the girl's hair.

"I just don't want to go," Cassie mumbled.

"Cassandra Ivy Juliette Vaughn, we all know that is a complete and utter lie. You couldn't stop talking about the grounds with the lake and the castle with all of its turrets. What's changed?" questioned Odette, joining the small group of girls that was now congregating around Libby's bed.

"Nothing! I've got so much work to do and I want to get ahead for all of my OWL revision. I just don't have time." Cassie said, not believing a word that was coming out of her own mouth.

"If you don't tell us what is going on right now, I will be forced to use the banned nipple cripple spell on you Cassie, so help me I will. We all know how it ended in second year, do you really want to see a repeat?" Libby yelled dramatically, brandishing her wand like a mad woman.

"Lib, put the wand down," Bonnie said, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Not until Cassandra tells us what's going on!" Libby boomed.

"Jeez you're so dramatic!" Cassie huffed rolling over to face her friends.

"If I get chosen to go, that means the likelihood of me seeing the twins and having to socialise with them increases, and I don't think I'm ready," she said voice thick, "We saw Bill Weasley, the twins older brother at Gringotts in the summer and he mentioned that all of the Weasley's had tried to visit me in the hospital, why do they care now all of a sudden? They ignored me for nearly 5 years!" Cassie wailed.

"Ah the tall, hot, redheaded men at the hospital, I recall!" Bonnie said, trying to nod along sympathetically.

"Can you keep it in your pants for five minutes Bon, please," pleaded Libby, chuckling.

"Wait, you met them?!" screeched Cassie, frantically looking between the girls.

"Not really, a massive gaggle of gingers walked in whilst we were sitting in the waiting room of the hospital one day, they asked for you but Kingsley came out and told them you were too weak to see visitors. They all looked pretty shaken up if I'm being honest." Libby said in a calming voice trying to defuse the tension.