Cards, Fire & Cinnamon - F.WEASLEY

32

───── ❝Don't do it, don't do it. Don't. ❞ ─────

Cass had a nightmare. The first one in a long time. She awoke with the reminisce of a scream in her throat and tear-stained cheeks. Nova sat at the end of her bed, looking up at her with a tilted head. Moments later, she walked into her lap and sat there until the sun rose. Cass gripped the necklace around her neck, just staring into space as the sun rose. She had never wanted to smoke more, sadly there weren't any in her room.

She, from all the crying and blank staring, managed to miss breakfast - not that anything would have been eaten anyway. Cass managed to get herself together but still ended up late to Potions. She just snuck in the back, hoping that Snape was too busy with whatever demonstration he was doing at the front. Cass blatantly ignored the questioning and worried looks from Draco and Hermione. "What's up?" Draco whispered to her, keeping his gaze fixed at the front of the classroom just in case Snape turned around.

"Nothing," she sighed, twirling the quill around her fingertips. None of the information would go in her head, it was too busy reliving the dream over and over again.

"Cass..." Draco pressed, knowing she was lying through her teeth.

"I'm fine," she dropped her head to the desk, feeling a throbbing pain beginning in the front of her head.

"Bull-"

"Mr Malfoy! Would you like to share your ever so interesting conversation with us?" Snape sneered from the front of the classroom, every head turned towards them. Cass just looked straightforward, not paying any of them any mind. "Miss McKinnon, how nice of you to finally join us." Saved by snivellus.

Draco and Hermione tried to talk to Cass about what was going on throughout the whole lesson. She never said a word about it to either of them. That girl was excellent at avoiding her problems with distractions. She even somehow managed to escape the lesson early, heading straight to her bedroom instead of the lunch hall. She just lay in her bed underneath her weighted blanket, alone with her thoughts. Miserable. She didn't bother going to anyone's lessons that day.

Cass only eventually got out of bed when enough was enough. She needed to smoke. So she went to find Daniel. She must have looked for a good hour. She tried the Hufflepuff commons, the Quidditch pitch, so many classrooms and the library but he was nowhere to be seen. The dream still played over and over and now she was failing to ignore it. It developed her senses and she had to go back to her bedroom, frustrated and desperately craving something that she couldn't get herself without Draco finding out.

Her stomach growled, creating the idea for a distraction. Cass walked down to the great hall for dinner, Nova walking alongside her. She kept her gaze fixed on the floor as she made her way to the table. The entire hall was loud with chatter and clanking of plates, it got overwhelming very quickly. "Where've you been all day?" Draco asked once he realised that she had appeared.

Cass looked up from her plate (which had a small amount of food that she had been pushing around with her fork on it) and replied, "My room, wasn't feeling well."

"You do look a little pale," he replied, casting all of his attention to her in worry.

"Coming from you?" she joked, trying to reassure that look of concern off his face. It worked and he even laughed. Draco soon got distracted again but Cass couldn't deal with the hall anymore. She wanted to be alone so she dropped her fork and walked out of the hall, heading outside into the chilly air. What she didn't know was that Fred, who had been watching her in concern for the past half an hour, followed soon after telling George where he was off to. The hope was that it would reset her brain and stop the ghost of a cig that found its way at her fingertips. It didn't work and she just ended up sitting at the black lake, back rested against a tree.