Ashes | 𝔇. 𝔐𝔞𝔩𝔣𝔬𝔶 [𝟙]

30 ⚡︎ Hedgehogs and Puffskeins

♫ Sailor Song by Gigi Perez ♫

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither;
Deep roots are not reached by the frost."

-J.R.R Tolkien

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Tears fell down on the hand covering her mouth as she leaned back against the door. Her head hung low, and her fiery red hair cascaded down the sides of her head like fire as it touched her thighs. She shouldn't have done it, she thought. It was stupid and her brothers would all hate her for it if they knew, she was sure of it.

Cassandra moved her hand down from her mouth and she put it over her heart to try and calm herself down, inwardly praying that Draco didn't follow her up here and that he just gave up and turned back toward the common room. 

"Cass?" Someone called softly from the other side of the door. The redhead closed her eyes as her breath hitched in her throat. "Did I do something?"

She swallowed as her eyesight became blurry from more tears, and she decided not to answer. She sat there for a while, meanwhile, Draco was still standing on the other side of the door. After about 10 minutes, Cassie could hear the blonde boy leave and she breathed out a sigh of relief.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

The following morning was both awkward and chaotic. Pansy had forgotten her makeup at home and had to borrow Cassie's, Draco was sulking, Blaise had managed to forget his transfiguration book at home and Theo managed to oversleep somehow- meanwhile, the walls were caving in around Cassandra. 

On top of everything else, she had dreamed about some corridor all night. An empty corridor leading to a door that she never got to open- and there was something funny about the dream, it was odd. 

"Come on, Pans! We can't be late for McGonagall's first lesson of the year!" The redhead told her friend in a stressed voice. Cassie was standing dressed and ready in the doorway, while Pansy was putting on some perfume last minute. "I have to look good for Theo, I haven't seen him since we left Hogwarts last term!" Pansy exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Cassandra knew that Pansy hadn't sat in their group's carriage, but rather with the other Slytherin girls. She sighed exasperatedly at the brunette, before the latter shot up out of her chair, grabbed her bag, and followed the redhead out of the dormitory.

They rushed down the stairs down to their common room, where they found Draco, Blaise and Theo. The black boy looked very stressed at the prospect of them possibly being late, but like a loyal friend he had waited with the others. 

"Sorry, sorry!" Cassie breathed out to the others as she walked up next to Blaise so that Pansy could walk next to Theo. The girl would've normally preferred to walk next to Theo instead of Blaise, she loved them both equally but the latter could get really grumpy when late for a class. Nonetheless, she let Pansy walk next to Theo since she fancied him. 

The group got to class just on time, but Blaise still got detention for not having his book- McGonagall really was ruthless. "Come on Professor, it's the first day of term! My sister was reading it in my room when I was packing!" Blaise exclaimed at this in his mind unfair treatment, but she only dismissed him and told him to sit down with the ghost of a sympathetic smile on her face, but it was gone when she began the lesson.

After Blaise had sat down next to Theo, Draco unfortunately sat down next to Cassie. The girl blushed slightly and looked down at the desk, looking both embarrassed and slightly ashamed. The blonde remained quiet while Professor McGonagall continued the walkthrough of the vanishing spell. 

After half an hour it was time for the class to attempt the spell themselves, and McGonagall handed out hedgehogs for everyone to try to vanish. Once McGonagall had passed by Draco and Cassie, the former leaned in close to whisper in the girl's ear as she carefully petted the Hedgehog on it's head- it was tame, or it just liked her.

"Did I do something last night? I'm sorry if I did but I ought to know, with- well..." The blonde trailed off awkwardly, and Cassandra's breath hitched in her throat once he finished his sentence, she understood immediately what he was referring to. She hadn't even considered that he might've interpreted it that way, she wasn't thinking.

"No, it's nothing like that. It's just- we can't, Draco." She said to him earnestly, hoping he got the gist of it- but apparently, he didn't. "Why not..?" He asked her, sounding disappointed but at the same time trying to sound like it was a question of no real importance to him.

"You know why. Now that he is back, we're on opposite sides of this war." She told him without looking him in the eye, emphasizing the word 'he'. She swallowed and continued before he could say anything in response. "And even if we weren't, I still couldn't. My family would hate me for it." 

He didn't say anything in response, he only nodded at her when she glanced his way after a while. Cassie noticed how Draco now was the one not able to look her in the eyes, and it made her stomach sink slightly. For all her talk of them never being able to be together, she realized in that moment that perhaps a part of her wanted him to contradict her- to come up with a solution.

Ignoring this feeling, she started to attempt to vanish the hedgehog in front of her. Predictably, Blaise was the first in the class to successfully vanish his hedgehog while Draco was the second to manage it. Theo had somehow accidentally transfigured it into a puffskein that now ran amock around the classroom.

After Transfiguration, Cassandra and Draco avoided each other's gaze the whole morning- and it was now lunch, and the five of them were sitting at the Slytherin table in the great hall. Cassie still occupied her usual seat next to Draco and across from Theo, but only to not make the situation worse or more suspicious than it already was. 

"I'm not hungry.." She told Theo when he offered her some mashed potatoes, and the boy shrugged before loading up some more on his plate. The redhead noticed Draco's gaze out of the corner of her eye, but she showed no indication that she had noticed it at all.  

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Authors Note: Hii! I'm sorry for not updating recently, I'm going to try to be more active. Also, I'm so bad at ending chapters lol I'm so sorry about that

I hope you guys liked this chapter. As always, please let me know if y'all have any feedback or suggestions about my writing, the songs, quotes, the storyline or any of the characters!

Also don't forget to vote and comment, please don't be a silent reader <3

xx Alma

Word Count: 1.177

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌ .・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌