chosen - harry potter

Chapter 14 - Go Your Own Way

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Cassia and Hermione walked down the corridor, each clutching their school bags under their arm.

"So, you and Harry have been alright?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yeah, great," Cassia smiled. "Part of me was worried it'd be awkward at first, but it really wasn't. We got lucky."

"That is so sweet," Hermione sighed.

"I'm glad you think so," Cassia laughed. "I think Ron's already sick of us."

"Well, I don't imagine Ron's too much of a romantic."

Suddenly, a flash of green and purple sparks danced toward them. Cassia grabbed Hermione's arm gently and pulled her out of the way, and, all at once, the corridor filled with green-and-gold sparkling dragons and dozens of fireworks with a loud boom. The two girls watched from the doorway, their eyes wide. They shared a knowing look; they knew who was behind this.

When they arrived in the common room that evening, Fred and George stood with a crowd of Gryffindors around them. According to the crowd, the fireworks were still echoing throughout the corridor, and Umbridge was furious.

"Good work," Cassia smiled at them.

"Thanks," George said. "Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs. Only thing is, we used our whole stock. We're going to have to start from scratch now..."

"It was worth it, though," Fred said, taking orders from the Gryffindors. "If you two want to add your names to the waiting list, it's five Galleons for your Basic Blaze box and twenty for the Deflagration Deluxe."

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Cassia still wasn't sure how she was expected to create new spells, but she had begun dedicating a great amount of time to thinking about it. She knew that thinking about it and trying weren't the same thing, but spell creation wasn't exactly something she had much training in. In fact, in her reading, she found that the practice was much more dangerous than expected. There were countless cases of witches and wizards blowing their hands off, blinding themselves, or even dying in the process. 

She walked down the corridor, thinking about her plan. Her main concern was what type of spells would be beneficial to her in combat. She racked her brain, but she didn't actually have much combat experience. Her main experience ended with her jabbing her wand into a Death Eater's eye, and that most likely wouldn't help her in more wide-scale combat...

"Hey! Cassia!" 

Cho waved at her, smiling, and walked up to her from across the corridor.

"Oh, hi, Cho."

"Hi, um...how are you?" she asked nervously.

"I'm fine. How...how are you?"

"I'm good," she nodded. "Look, I just wanted to apologize about Marietta. I never dreamed she'd tell."

"It's okay. Everyone made it out safe," Cassia said, smiling awkwardly.

"Right. I was planning to apologize to Harry as well."

"You know...you don't have to," Cassia said, biting the inside of her cheek. "I just mean that...I don't think he'd take it well."

"Cassia, that's the other thing I wanted to apologize for. After you and Harry got together, I've been meaning to apologize if it ever came across like I was getting in the way. I don't want there to be anything weird there."

"Okay," Cassia said, confusedly. "Yeah, we're good, Cho."

"Great," Cho beamed, turning and walking down the corridor.