𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 | f. weasley

thirteen

CASSIE DID NOT EXPECT HARRY to return from his first trip to Hogsmeade in such a foul mood. When she approached him carefully, he simply shot daggers at her before storming off. She looked at Ron and Hermione hoping for answers but instead, she was only met with sour faces. She knew at once, this had something to do with Sirius Black. Out of absolutely no choice, she used Legililemency on Ron – considering Hermione would have recognized that Cassie had penetrated her mind – and watched the day's events play like clock winding in an unnatural speed. At last, she found the memory she needed. Harry getting to know that Sirius and James were best of friends and how Sirius betrayed them and fled off, killing Peter Pettigrew in the process. Cassandra's heart clenched and a splitting headache took over. She darted out of the room, grazing past Fred and George as they walked into the portrait hole. Fred's eyes followed Cassandra worriedly as he saw her run away from the tower. Giving George a quick heads up, he followed Cassie as she ran out the school grounds and stopped at the lake.

Cassie had been too preoccupied to notice Fred trailing behind her. She flopped herself down on a spot – she had seen Remus's eyes wander at this spot during their many conversations and she knew this was someplace the Marauders and possibly her mother hung out. Taking a seat, she stared at the Black Lake and blankly watched as the setting sun's rays glitter over its murky waters. Tears trickled down her cheeks. She felt extremely guilty. Although they were her father's mistakes, Cassandra was being forced to suffer its consequences and she hated every single bit of it.

Fred carefully approached Cassie. He could sense her pain from a meter away and was extremely confused about whether to approach the girl or leave her alone. After much deliberation, he went with his first choice thinking that in the worst-case scenario, he would get hexed and get caught by Filch and be put into another detention – and both these things didn't really matter to him, especially if it gave him a chance to converse with the girl who had been occupying her single thought of his for some extremely bizarre reason. George called it love – absurd thought, Fred knew it too well – but this was something else.

Fred considered himself to be one of those men who would only fall for someone after getting to know them well enough. He considered himself a man who needed an emotional bond, more than a physical infatuation. People always presumed from his outgoing and talkative nature that he was one of those men who would love being surrounded by girls – and once or twice he did prove them right – but that was not something with brought joy to his heart. And when he would ponder about what did, he would remember his little piano session with Cassandra.

The girl had always intrigued him. She was always quiet and composed and would barely show off her skills despite being extremely powerful. He had done a great mistake to consider her to be another Neville and had been proved horribly wrong when Cassie had returned – two times in a row, mind you – without a scratch while the rest of their group (Harry, Ron and Hermione) had returned from their little adventured with bruises here and there. Anyone would have simply assumed that Cassandra had not been involved – he had even believed that until Ron mentioned his extravagant chess play to Ginny while searching from some stone, stating 'how well Cassie had played' while Cassie sat beside them, her face hidden behind some book while she stayed in the Burrow for the summer between their first and second year.

She had always been the quiet kind who held too many secrets and powers for her own good – which made Fred particularly impressed.

Now taking his chances to converse with the girl again, Fred sat down beside her – leaving a polite amount of distance between them – and stared at the sunset like Cassie.

"What are we looking at?" he asked after a while. He knew Cassie had sensed his presence but had refused to verbally acknowledge it for some reason.