Of Redheads and Pranksters [George Weasley] ✓

TWO

The Gryffindor common room was completely deserted when Cassie walked into it at seven in the morning the next day. She didn't usually wake up that early, but once she awoke, sleep wasn't an option anymore. The twins weren't likely to wake up anytime soon, and neither were the girls, so the redhead decided to go to the Great Hall and see how much bacon she could eat until they arrived. It sounded like a good plan.

Very few people were scattered around the hall, each on their own tables yawning or talking quietly with her friends. To Cassie's disgust, Crowe was already there, making a full on show of telling something very secret and very important to some of her closest friends. The Gryffindor girl scrunched up her nose and sat with her back to the Slytherin table, focusing instead on the delicious food that piled up in the table.

"Good morning sunshine!"

George Weasley's voice startled her half an hour later. He and his grinning twin quickly sat down next to Cassie, piling up eggs and sausages onto their respectable plates. How the two of them were always in a good mood in the morning was still a mystery to her.

"You morons, I could've choked." She grumpily said. Their grins grew bigger.

"What a shame." Fred joked, and Cassie punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Careful Moore, I need these for quidditch."

As breakfast went on, McGonagall passed by giving out the yearly timetables. Cassie had successfully passed Charms, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and —although she wasn't sure how—, Herbology. The twins had gotten four OWLs each: Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Herbology.

"Looks like we will be classmates again." George commented, smirking. Cassie chuckled.

"As long as you don't distract me continuously..."

Their first class of the day was a two-hour Charms lesson, for which none of them were especially thrilled. Angelina and Alicia joined them around the end of the breakfast time, yawning and grabbing some muffins to eat along the way to the class. It seemed like all of them, including Lee Jordan, had picked Charms for their NEWTs, so the six of them walked together to the classroom, sitting in three sets of desks at the very end of the room.

"This year we have to get serious." Angelina whispered, sitting next to Cassie.

The redhead sniggered.

"With those two behind us? Nice try." She replied, pointing to the two pranksters with her thumb. They weren't making trouble, but talking with their heads very close. Probably plotting some prank or another.

The lesson went on without further incident, Angelina and Cassie trying to take notes of everything Professor Flitwick was saying while ignoring the not-so-quiet chuckles of Alicia, Lee and the twins behind them. Cassie rather liked Charms, but it wasn't near as exciting as the prospect of having Defence Against the Dark Arts in the afternoon with the new and scary teacher.

The clunk of his wooden leg could be heard in the corridor as he approached the classroom, filled with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs almost unable to contain their anticipation. When he entered the room, Professor Moody slammed the door shut, effectively shutting everyone up as he started calling the roll.

"This year, I will begin to prepare you for the most important exams of your academic life: the NEWTs." The man started to speak in a gruffy voice, as he wrote in the chalkboard. "Now, many of my colleagues think that some things are not to be learned until you are adults, but I disagree. And that's why we will start with the Unforgivable Curses."

Murmurs of surprise and intrigue travelled through the students, some even gasping in surprise. Cassie just arched one eyebrow, having been told by her mother about the Curses and their danger, but Lee, sitting right next to her, was buzzing with excitement.

"Who can tell me the names of the three Curses?" Moody asked, surveying the class before him with both his eyes, the magical one going extra fast.

Cassie felt like sinking on her seat when Fred Weasley's hand rose up in the air. Nothing good could come out of it.

However, Fred was strangely serious.

"My dad told me about the Imperious one." He said, his voice lowering. "The Ministry had big trouble with it."

"Correct." The teacher praised. "The Imperious Curse. Complete control over a person and no way to distinguish its effects. Let's see..."

And, to Cassie's horror, one scarred hand went into a jar she hadn't noticed before and extracted a big, very alive spider. She had to refrain from standing up and running away, and instead fixed her eyes in the wooden desk before her.

"Imperio!" She heard the man say, and a flash of light reached her eyes. She still didn't lift her gaze, a nausea feeling becoming present in her stomach.

From the gasps of the students around her, Cassie gathered that Moody had, in fact, cursed the spider and was making it do whatever he wanted. It was gruesome to imagine.

After that little show, someone else spoke up and mentioned the Cruciatus Curse, which caused extreme and almost unbearable pain to a person, and the Professor casted it on the arachnid, for whom Cassie did not feel any sorrow. Spiders had been her greatest fear since she was little, and even the thought of them made her sick.

Thankfully, her anxiety ended when the Killing Curse was brought up, and the spider ended up dead. Cassie didn't even look up at that point. She had had enough with dead spiders in Potions class the year before, it was not like she needed to see any more of them.

"That was awesome!" George beamed as they filed out of the class. Alicia and Angelina nodded in agreement, a bit shocked at the demonstration of the forbidden curses but excited, nonetheless.

They commented on the lesson all the way to the Gryffindor Common Room, while Cassie remained silent at the back of the group. She was still a bit tense because of the sudden appearance of the spider, and talking about how cool it had been to see the animal suffer some gruesome curses was the last thing she wanted to do at the moment.

"I think I'm just going to go upstairs for a while." She announced when they reached the common room, her voice low.

"You okay, Cass?" Alicia immediately asked, concerned for her friend's sudden change of mood after the lesson. Cassie nodded unconvincingly.

"Yeah, just want to be alone for a bit."

All five teenagers sent worried looks her way while she climbed up the stairs to the sixth year girls' dorm, but went back to their excited chatter after a few minutes, not thinking much more of it.

Once she was finally alone, Cassie sat down on her small desk and took out some ink and parchment. She needed to talk to Sirius —to her dad.

He would understand her.

A/N: Hello again! Kind of a filler chapter, but necessary to keep the story going on. There will be some action soon, I promise. I finish my finals next week, so you will have a new chapter then! Have a good day!