Everything Changes // Fred Weasley

chapter 35: summer plans and mastery classes

May 3rd, 1995

The next few weeks I spent most of my time in the library.

I had hoped that once the Easter holiday was over and the rest of the students returned to Hogwarts that the professors would loosen up on my course load. I figured that the influx of students they had to teach plus the approaching exam season would cause them to focus more on those things and have less time to give me work.

But I was wrong.

At one point during the weeks between when I found out about the whole witch thing and when students returned back to school, most of the professors got together to discuss my studies. I tried not to think about all of them in some classroom sitting around a large table talking about how they would deal with my situation (which is what all of them called it — the situation). I didn't like to picture a room where everyone was talking about me yet I wasn't allowed to be there to give any sort of input. 

They all came to the conclusion that simply assigning me readings and essays wasn't going to be enough. I needed actual lessons, with not just theory, but also real-world application. So my days began to consist of private lessons — whenever a professor could find the time to fit me into their schedule — and studying in the library.

I still didn't have a wand and it wasn't looking too promising that I would be getting one anytime soon, so Dumbledore lent me a spare one that he had lying around in his office. It wasn't at all like Naomi and Fred's wands that I usually used when practicing. Something about the way my spells were being caste made it seem like the wand didn't want me to be using it at all.

Most of the time I would be alone in the library, but every now and then, after classes had finished for the day, Cass would join me at the back table, and the two of us would work in silence. Him obsessing over book after book, trying to make some sense of his vision. Me pouring over textbook after textbook, trying to cram six years of magic into a few measly months.

Every now and then, one of us would grow tired or frustrated with what we were working on and would instead help the other with whatever they were working on. I never really knew what I was supposed to do to help Cass, but reading about past tournaments was a nice break from my regular studies.

"I had the vision again," Cass said one day while we were both looking through Hogwarts: A History for what felt like the hundredth time. At that point, I knew the book back and forth, but Cass insisted that we were missing something. Something about secret messages hidden between the lines.

"Oh?"

"It was more detailed this time." He said, but he didn't pick his head up out of the book. He always tried to be as inconspicuous as he could when talking about his visions. "I think my lessons with Trelawny are paying off."

"What was different?"

"I saw Cedric."

I breathed a sigh of relief at the name, but quickly scolded myself. I didn't know Cedric at all, but I had been worried for Harry ever since Cass told me his vision. As terrible as it may sound, I was relieved to know that Harry wasn't the main focus of the foreboding vision. 

"What was he doing?"

"Running. Like something was chasing him." He replied, then shut his eyes tightly. He told me once that his visions often were difficult to recall unless he cancelled out one or more of his senses. "Then the green light flashed again and the vision was over."

"Did you tell Trelawny?" I asked.

He had started taking private lessons with her after my relentless begging that he would talk to someone that wasn't me about his visions. I was barely learning about the basics of the wizarding world. Adding on premonitions like Cass's was beginning to be too much for me to handle.