Epiphany |Scorpius Malfoy|

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The days at Hogwarts after Valentine's Day seemed to have lost some spark for the seventh-years. NEWTs were coming closer, the professors were assigning them more homework than ever, and even Isabelle, who generally finished with her homework quickly and would rather do something that didn't involve studying, was forced to study almost as much as everyone else.

The days seemed the same for most, but she was actually able to distinguish each and every one of them. After her talk with Scorpius, even if she couldn't be sure that what he was thinking was correct, she was counting down the days of the week she had left to make herself feel more relaxed with her prosthetic so as to manage to actually cast a Patronus this time.

She kept trying to make herself see it as part of herself, she even forced herself to smile every morning as she put it on and every time she got up the stairs, she thought that she was thankful for it because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to get up these stairs.

By the end of the week, she thought that her efforts had slightly paid off.

The morning just before Charms, she sat on the Hufflepuff table next to Cassidy with a smile on her lips, confident that she had done all she could and that there was no chance she wouldn't succeed. She had tried her best, if she couldn't do it now, then she didn't know when she could.

They were talking about the Charms class they would soon be attending when Bernard sat down across from them, alone, a small smile on his lips as he grabbed a croissant. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Bernard," Isabelle echoed, even as her eyes trailed to the door for a sign of the one who was usually with him.

Cassidy, on the other hand, chose to be direct with what she was thinking. "Where's Hailey?"

"She is not feeling all that well today," he informed them, only for their eyes to widen. "Don't worry, I left her at the nurse, she is going to be alright."

"What is wrong with her?" Isabelle asked, a small frown forming on her lips. "When I left that morning she seemed fine."

"She is dizzy," he explained, "she probably wouldn't have realised she was dizzy if she was still in bed, right? I told you, though, she is perfectly fine, the nurse is capable of tending to her."

"I suppose you know better than we do," Cassidy muttered, "you are her boyfriend after all, and you did see her in the morning, while we didn't, at least, not properly."

"Trust me when I say that she'll be perfectly fine to attend her first class of the day," he assured them, "I wouldn't worry too much about that. Might I change the topic of the conversation?"

Isabelle nodded. "Sure."

He offered her a smile, but instead of turning to her, turned to Cassidy. "Are you ready for the match against Slytherin this Saturday?"

"Ready, you say?" she smirked, "We are going to crash them. I've trained really hard for this, you should see my muscles."

To their amusement, she started raising her right sleeve. However, she soon realised that she couldn't raise it that far up her arm, and gave up. Still, she turned to Bernard with a mischevious smile. "I'll show you in the common room."

The wink she added in the end was enough to make both Isabelle and Bernard start laughing before he shook his head, almost not believing it seemed that she had actually insinuated something like that when they both knew that they could never be something more than friends. They knew she was joking, and her attempt at humour was actually welcome. If they were to actually be honest with themselves, Cassidy wouldn't have been the same person if it weren't for her teasing.