Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

85. Cheerful Wishes

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE;

CHEERFUL WISHES

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"This is an empty vial." Cassie stared at the glass in her hands and twisted it around to see if there was any article of importance somehow imbedded into it, but no such luck. It was simply an old phial that wasn't even occupied by a cool potion. She returned her eyes to the Minister, her lips twisting in a scowl. "What kind of joke is this?"

"It is not a joke, Miss Black," Rufus Scrimgeour said, nodding serenely. Cassie stared at him, waiting for the punchline, but none came. She exhaled a disbelieving, dry laugh and dropped the vial into her lap.

"Why would Dumbledore will me something I could get for a Knut at Diagon Alley?" she asked, immensely unimpressed. Ron had received the infamous Deluminator; Hermione had been given The Tales of Beetle the Bard (Dumbledore's own copy); Harry had gotten both his first Snitch and the Sword of Gryffindor. Cassie felt like she had drawn the short straw.

   "I was hoping you could answer that," the Minister said, raising a bushy brown eyebrow. "Why would Albus Dumbledore give you a plain vial? Surely it has no deeper meaning? No.. code rooted in it, perhaps?"

   Harry, Ron, and Hermione shared a 'Not-this-again' look – they had gone through the same thing; Scrimgeour asking if their gifts held any special meaning that could somehow help them take down the Ministry or be the cause of Scrimgeour's downfall. He had his sights set that Dumbledore was still conspiring against him.

From beyond the grave. Because that made sense.

   "Oh, Minister, I don't know," Cassie said sarcastically, wrapping her fist around the vial as to keep herself from using it to punch the man. "None that I could see. And I feel certain that a month of scanning it for Dark Magic would reveal any secret codes that Dumbledore planted for me to find."

   She raised an eyebrow challengingly. Scrimgeour shifted in his seat and clenched his jaw. It was no secret to anyone seated around the coffee table that the Ministry had clearly been searching every item that Dumbledore had left behind to see if he was somehow communicating with his army of teenaged spies and telling them how to dismantle the Ministry.

"If that's all, then.." Ron stood, heavily gesturing the Minister toward the exit. "G'bye, Minister."

Outside in the garden, in the fading pink-and-orange light of the sunset, the four objects that Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and lamented over The Tales of Beetle the Bard, but none of the guests could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry his Snitch, or Cassie an empty vial.

After a hastily sung chorus of "Happy Birthday" and cheerful returns, Harry's birthday party broke up. The guests hiked to the top of a nearby hill and gave one last wave before Disapparating back to the safety of their own homes. The mess was left to the inhabitants of the Burrow to pick up.

"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Cassie as he passed by her to throw away his gift wrappings. "Ron's room, after everyone's gone to bed."

Cassie gave him a subtle nod and busied herself with taking down the birthday decorations, declining anyone's offer to help and waiting anxiously for the last light in the Burrow to go out. When it finally did, she tiptoed into the house and upstairs to Ron's bedroom. A sinking feeling in her stomach kindly reminded her that they didn't have much time left together, and she ought to savor every moment, really...