Cards, Fire & Cinnamon - F.WEASLEY

35

───── ❝ Books❞ ─────

"Morning guys," she smiled as she sat down for breakfast. Draco took a bite out of an apple and completely avoided catching her eye.

"Morning Cass," Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise chorused in between mouthfuls.

She looked to Draco for a moment, expecting him to say something. When he didn't, she leant a little closer to Blaise and whispered, "What's up with him?"

Blaise chuckled, "Oh, he's in a mood with you."

"Why?" she asked. Upon thought, it wasn't hard to realise why. Cass laughed, nudging his elbow with the handle of her fork, "Are you still in a mood because I dumped water on you the other day?"

"Stop it Cass," he snapped, pulling his arms off the table.

She slid her arm away from his, looking at him with slightly widened eyes and a furrowed brow. "What's gotten into you?"

He refused to look up at her. "Do you not remember what you did?"

"It's just water Draco, you could have used a drying spell," she laughed quietly to herself but then stopped when he met her eyes with a glare that could kill.

"I know, I'm not stupid you know."

"I never said you were... I was just joking."

He took a sip from his coffee, "That seems to be all you do at the moment."

Anger started to form within her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He sighed dramatically, "Ever since you got with Weasley you've been different."

"Are you kidding me right now?" she exhaled sharply out of her nose, an almost laugh. Cass dropped her fork and stood to leave. "I've changed? The only change is that I'm actually relatively happy now. Excuse me if I think I deserve that."

She walked straight over to the Gryffindor table and sat with them, taking the spare seat next to Ron.

He looked at her in confusion, "What's going on?"

"Draco's being a prat," she sighed and caught the attention of Fred, who had been too busy talking to Lee to notice her originally. Cass explained it all to him and at the end of her description, the two of them turned to flip Draco off. It was very cathartic, even if she did slightly regret it once she realised what was probably going on with him. It still didn't give him the right to be so horrible though.

Fred and Cass didn't have plans to do anything but because of the Draco situation, the two decided to spend the morning together in her bedroom. They watched a few movies, listened to records and read books together. She loved every second and found herself feeling relaxed, an odd feeling.

They were sitting on her bedroom floor, amongst a layer of pillows and blankets. Nova slept on Fred's lap as they swapped tales from their childhoods. Cass loved hearing about the chaos that he got up to as a child. "I used to write stories," she confessed with a laugh feeling awkward even saying it aloud.

He raised a brow, not really expecting that from her. "Stories?"

She chuckled and ran a hand through her hair (that desperately needed re-dying). "Yeah, stupid little things about whatever I thought of, sometimes they were based off dreams. I filled... I think eighteen diaries age ten to fifteen." Her cheeks were pink at this point.

He smiled softly, becoming more intrigued with every passing second, "Do you still have these notebooks?"

She hesitated for a moment. It wasn't a thought hesitation, no she knew exactly where the notebooks were. It was a thought as to whether or not she wanted to show them to him. A younger Cass would have said no, those stories hadn't even been read by her Fathers eye. Now, she seemed alright with it, after all it's not like they were anything special. She replied. "I do, well the later ones anyway."

He turned his head, looking directly at her and nothing else. "Can I read one?" he asked, hoping that she didn't feel pressured into anything.

"Seriously?" she laughed, eyes wide in surprise.

"If you're okay with that?"

"Sure," she laughed and climbed out of the blanket huddle. Cass made a beeline for her wardrobe and after digging around for a few moments she pulled out one at random. A deep purple journal with doodles all over it, she guessed it was from around the age of fifteen. "Just warning you that they're crap," she shrugged then handed it over to him. Once Cass had settled, with her head resting against his shoulder, he began to read while she watched the movie that they had put on in the background. The silence and every turn of the page had her stomach flipping.

He shut the book after a few chapters, "This is really good." She just looked at him, not believing a single word coming out of his mouth. "Seriously, with some work, it could be like published and everything."

She just laughed but stopped when she realized he wasn't too. "You're joking...Right?"

He placed the book on the bed behind them, "I'm serious. You should look into this sort of thing If you still enjoy it."

Truth was, she hadn't even thought of writing since the last book had been filled on the eve of her first day at magic school. Not a single thought or daydream had been created and yet, she felt drawn to the idea. Kinda like when something just gets stuck in your head and you just have to do it right then and there. Problem was, she didn't have a decent storyline to test it with. She smiled softly at him then pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, "I'll think about it."

And she did.

-

A few days later, Cass walked back from dinner alone. She hadn't talked to Draco once, not even in potions where they sat together. As the time passed and she noticed more and more deterioration in his happiness and focus, she soon forgave him. It became clear that something greater was going on and she just didn't take offence to it anymore. Cass wanted to talk to him but she never got the opportunity. That was, until they managed to be the only two left in the common room one evening.

Draco sat facing the fire, a book open in his lap but not a word of it had been read in the past hour. He just stared at the flames and didn't even notice when she sat down in the chair that faced him at an angle. She cleared her throat and asked, "You alright?" Even though she knew he wasn't. She just wanted to be there for him, whatever was happening.

"Fine," he muttered mindlessly, clearly he had answered the same question over and over. That just made her worry even more.

"Draco..." she replied softly. His mind snapped back in place upon recognition of her voice.

"I'm sorry," he blurted, quicker than his comprehension. "I'm just... Not thinking straight I guess."

"It's okay," she smiled softly. "What's wrong?"

Draco sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Lucius is being an asshole again."

Cass, already angered by the mention of that person's name, soon figured out that her theory had been correct. "What's he done now?"

"Nothing that's even worth a second thought honestly," Draco sighed, angered with himself for giving it much more than that. She could tell that this wasn't something that he was ready to talk about yet so she just remained quiet, letting him continue with the things that he did want to share. "We argued about... it enough and it was stressing Mum out so I just stopped. And I didn't want to tell you and ruin your happy mood so it kinda just stewed and I got even angrier with myself and him, hence the lash out at you which I did not mean at all," he rambled, meeting her gaze at the very end.

"Draco, whatever my mood, if you need to talk about something knock my door down, we both know you can," she replied, still keeping the softness to her voice. He just smiled softly at her, extremely thankful for even this short conversion and her forgiveness. "You know if you need somewhere to stay during the holidays, I have a huge empty house now."

"I know and I appreciate the offer, like a lot," Draco replied, looking back to the fire as he shut the unread book on his lap. He turned and she just smiled at him. "Love you, Cassandra."

She laughed softly and shortly, "Love you too Bleachy."

"You just ruined that moment."

"You started it!"