chosen - harry potter

Chapter 10 - The Preparation

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Following the task, Cassia had many people asking about her experience in the lake. She didn't have much to speak about, though, seeing as she was asleep for most of it. She would deflect to Harry, who explained the story a little differently each time he told it to make Cassia laugh.

Much to Cassia's surprise, Pansy and Blaise asked her what happened during the task before Potions. She explained everything she remembered, and the two of them listened intently.

"Wow...so Dumbledore knocking you out is the last thing you remember?" Pansy asked curiously.

"Yeah," Cassia nodded. "And then waking up freezing in the lake."

"Weird," Pansy said airily, then she hit her hands on the table, her rings clanking noisily. "Listen, I used to really hate all Gryffindors because I thought you were all annoying. But you made me feel better during the Yule Ball even though you didn't have to and...I appreciate that. So we're cool, okay?"

"Even though I'm a halfblood?"

"Who am I, Malfoy?" Pansy said, waving her hand around. "I don't care."

"I don't either, Cassia," Blaise smiled. "We'll just have to make sure our parents don't know."

"I don't care if mine do," Pansy shook her head. "And, listen, you'll have to meet Theo sometime. You'll like him."

Hermione bustled in and sat down next to her, looking at the two Slytherins confusedly.

"Let us know if you ever need anything, Cassia," Pansy smiled. They sat down at a table closer to the front.

Hermione slid a newspaper to Cassia as Snape walked in. Harry and Ron hurried in, sitting with them. The headline read "Harry Potter's Secret Heartache." Cassia looked up, sharing a look with Hermione, who nodded for her to read further. The article wrote of Hermione, saying that she had been having a romantic relationship with both Harry and Krum, playing both of them. Cassia snorted, covering her mouth.

"So what?" Cassia giggled. "She's making you out to be a chronic champion snogger?"

"If that's the best Rita can do, she's losing her touch," Hermione said, throwing the newspaper onto an empty chair. "What a pile of old rubbish."

Cassia opened the ingredients that they needed for the potion and Hermione gathered the materials. 

"There's something funny, though," Hermione said. "How could Rita Skeeter have known Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?"

"What?" Cassia said happily, poking Hermione in the side. 

"He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake," Hermione blushed furiously. "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said, if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to -"

"And what did you say?" Ron said, looking furiously at her.

"Well, I was too busy seeing whether Cass and Harry were okay to -"

"Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger," Snape said icily from behind them, "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor."

He strode over to the copy of Witch Weekly, snatching it up.

"Ah...reading magazines under the table as well? A further ten points from Gryffindor...oh but of course...Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings. 'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache'...oh dear, Potter, what's ailing you now? Well, I think I had better separate the four of you, so you can keep your minds on your potions rather than on your tangled love lives. Weasley, you stay here. Miss Bright, over there, beside Miss Parkinson. Granger, over with Longbottom. Potter - that table in front of my desk. Move. Now."