Mischief Managed

Chapter 2

"He did not!" Hermione squealed, as they walked out of the classroom. "He did!" Cassie laughed. "He was mad at Snape for saying those things to me and it was...kind of in the moment. Who knows if he even meant it!" 

Hermione scoffed and whacked her arm. "Of course he meant it! Look! There he is! Ben!" Cassie shushed her, but Hermione caught Ben's attention and he started jogging over. As soon as he got in front of them, she asked, "Did you mean it when you told her you love her?" 

Ben looked over to Cassie, who had her face buried in her hands. He smiled and gently took her hands away from her face. She looked up at him as if she were embarrassed of herself. He put his finger under her chin, looked into her eyes and said, "I've loved you since you blew up our teacher. Actually, I had a crush on you before that, but that's when I knew I loved you."

He kissed the corner of her mouth, then smiled at her. "Come on, let's go watch everyone but me put their name in the Goblet." They walked to the room where the Goblet was and sat on the benches to watch people put their names in. 

Cassie and Hermione were studying while this was going on and Ben, Harry, and Ron were grumbling about how they wanted to put their names in. It was very entertaining when Fred and George tried, but failed miserably. 

After a while, the five headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was Cassie's favorite class. Her and Ben (of course) sat together and watched in amusement as Mad-Eye taught the class. He showed them the three unforgivable curses. 

As he was teaching this, Cassie caught his eye. "Ms. Hansen," he said, "the first American to step foot inside of Hogwarts." Ben was getting ready to jump him if he said anything bad to her. "It's an honor to be teaching you these lessons," Mad-Eye said, shocking Ben and Cassie. 

"Oh," she said. "Well, thank you, sir." Mad-Eye put down a disgusting spider-like creature in front of her, then asked, "Do you know the three unforgivable curses?" She glanced over to Ben, then Hermione in front of her, before looking back to him. 

She shook her head. "No, sir, I don't." Mad-Eye hummed, then showed her the Imperious Curse, which led the creature to doing whatever he commanded it to do. He then showed her the Cruciatus Curse...which seemed to affect her. 

As soon as he said the word, "Crucio" and she watched the spider-like creature scream in pain, she started shaking and twitching while she started sweating. She flinched at the spider every time it let out an awful scream. 

Ben, clearly seeing this, shouted, "Stop it! Look at her!" Mad-Eye stopped and Cassie immediately let out a breath of relief. Ben quickly got a look at her. She was pale and looked like she was going to be sick. 

"Cass," he softly said, as Mad-Eye turned his attention to Harry to show the killing curse. "Hey, you're alright. What happened?" She shook her head slowly, then weakly shrugged. "I...I...I don't know. It just hurt so bad when he did it."

Without telling Mad-Eye where they were going, Ben quickly got her up and into the infirmary to Madam Pomfrey. "He should not be showing anyone those retched spells," she complained, as she looked over Cassie on the hospital bed. 

"I'll have her stay here over night, make sure she doesn't get sick." She walked out to go grab Cassie some pumpkin juice to swallow her medication with. "Ben, why did this happen to me and nobody else?" Cassie asked. 

Sighing, he told her, "Because you were closest to it. Hell, I could feel my body go into pain when it happened. He shouldn't have done that to you." He ran his hand through her hair as Madam Pomfrey came in. 

"Alright Mr. Cumberbatch, you need to leave so she can rest," she said. Ben sighed, but leaned over and kissed Cassie's forehead. "I'll come back later," he promised. "I love you." Her heart fluttered at his words and she smiled. "I love you, too," she told him.

He placed a small kiss on her lips, then begrudgingly walked out of the room.

Unfortunately, he couldn't come back to see her because Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let him. He tried to use the excuse that he had her homework, but that didn't work. He tried a few times with the other nurses, but got nothing.

The next time he saw her, she was coming into the great hall just in time for dinner. She looked better, but still a little pale. He got up from his seat just in time for her to approach the group. "Hey, you," he said, pulling her in for a hug. "How are you feeling? They wouldn't let me come see you."

Cassie laughed a little and told him, "I know. Madam Pomfrey kept complaining about you. I'm feeling okay, though, better than yesterday." As she and Ben sat down, Ron said, "Don't look now, but Malfoy is...well..."

Ben looked behind him and saw Malfoy impersonating Cassie's reaction to the curse. Ben clenched his fist and stood up, but Martin and Tom grabbed a hold of his shoulders and brought him back down.

"He's not worth it, Ben," Hermione told him. "The fact that she even reacted to the spell is a serious matter. I hear Dumbledore is looking into it."

Cassie rolled her eyes and sighed, "Great. Now I'll be the one that got our professor in trouble and the teasing will never stop."

Harry put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Honestly, you've just got to ignore it. You can't give them the satisfaction of reacting to it...believe me."

After dinner, they all gathered around the goblet with the rest of the school. As everyone was seating, Cassie turned to Ben and said, "I'm not feeling too well."

He ran his hand over her hair and said, "This shouldn't take too long. We'll go straight back to the common room when it's over and I'll take care of you, alright?"

She really just wanted to go lay down, but it was mandatory that all the students join in seeing who made it into the tournament. If she was being honest, she didn't entirely care. Not at the moment, anyways.

Her, Ben,Hermione and Harry sat together, while the other's were spread out. Dumbledore made some announcements, then the Goblet started flaring up. 

The first bit of paper came out. Cedric Digory, Victor Krum, and then Fleur Delocour were all chosen. Cassie was getting ready to leave when the Goblet started flaring up again. 

Another name came out...

...and then another. 

Dumbledore caught the two of them, then opened them up as everyone watched in silence. "Harry Potter," he muttered. He looked at the other one. 

"Cassandra Hansen."