chosen - harry potter

Chapter 9 - The Quidditch Cup

The Gryffindor Tower buzzed all night; no one slept. They awaited Professor McGonagall, who returned at dawn, telling everyone that Sirius Black had escaped once again. 

Ron was nearly a celebrity, recounting the story over and over for everyone, turning bright red while telling groups of girls. Cassia and Hermione watched from a distance, Hermione continually scoffing at the story as she studied. Though at first Cassia sided with Hermione to preserve some semblance of neutrality between her friends, she had begun to genuinely grow angry at Ron. He had been disgusting to Hermione, and Cassia felt it was unjust and ridiculous at that point. Harry and Cassia were perfectly fine, however, often finding solace in the times that they were alone with each other in the common room. That wasn't happening too often, though, for Cassia was most often with Hermione. In fact, she rarely knew where Harry and Ron were unless they were in the common room or they shared a class with her.

Cassia sat at a table with Hermione, the Gryffindors in the common room chatting excitedly about the Hogsmeade trip that was posted on the bulletin board. 

"Are you planning to go to Hogsmeade?" Cassia asked, looking up from her essay.

"No," Hermione said shortly, not looking up from her book.

"I'll stay here with you if you'd like," Cassia smiled. "I have a lot of work to do, anyway."

"Really?" Hermione said hopefully, looking up. "That'd be great!"

"Hogsmeade, next weekend!" Ron said, looking at the bulletin board. Cassia saw him quietly say something to Harry, and they went to sit down.

"Well, Filch hasn't done anything about the passage into Honeydukes..." Harry said quietly.

"Harry!" Hermione said as they passed. The two turned around annoyedly. "Harry, if you go into Hogsmeade again...I'll tell Professor McGonagall about that map!"

"Can you hear someone talking, Harry?" Ron spat, not looking at Hermione.

"Grow up, Ron," Cassia said. "It probably isn't the best idea after, I don't know, you saw Sirius Black in your dorm."

"How can you be so okay with him going?" Hermione asked. "It's best if someone knows about the map-"

"So now you're trying to get Harry expelled?" Ron said furiously. "Haven't you done enough damage this year?"

"What damage?" Cassia snapped. "Your old, useless rat dying?"

Hermione stood up and darted up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, looking sad and frustrated. Cassia looked at Harry.

"Bring the invisibility cloak again just to be safe," she said quietly. "Sirius Black is around and you need to protect yourself. And you," she looked at Ron, "are a prick."

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

The Saturday of the Hogsmeade trip, Cassia said goodbye to Harry, ignoring Ron, and spent the day with Hermione in the common room. They studied together, finished some essays, and chatted about how unfair Harry and Ron were being. Of course, Cassia felt it was only Ron being unfair, but she played along regardless. 

"Hey, look at that," Cassia said, holding up a piece of parchment from her bag, "it's the start of my werewolf essay from when Snape assigned it. I didn't get very far, though."

"I'm still upset about that essay. I finished it!" Hermione said. "What'd you write about?"

"I only got as far as the Homorphus charm. D'you remember when Lockhart said it cures lycanthropy?"

"That always confused me. It's a very temporary charm," Hermione said. "Helpful, but temporary."

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧