Mischief Managed ~ Part 2

Chapter 5

"Hey you," Ben greeted with a smile, before wrapping his arm around Cassie and giving her a big kiss on the cheek. "Sleep alright?" She nodded and gave him an actual smile. Ever since their talk, she's been feeling a lot better and less lonely. "I slept...pretty well, actually. For once, I didn't have a nightmare."

He smiled widely at her and said, "That's great, love! What about your appetite? Hungry yet?" She huffed out a laugh and said, "Starving." They walked to the great hall hand-in-hand. Ben had Cassie giggling with some stupid jokes he made up about Professor Snape. 

At one point they thought Snape heard him because they were being glared at by the Professor.

"Look at you," Ben chuckled as he swirled Cassie around on their way to get lunch, "you're radiant." He pulled her to him and pressed several kisses to her head. They continued to be a cute, smiling couple all the way to the Great Hall. "Glad to see you two getting on again," Tom called from behind them. 

He and Martin were running over to them. "Yeah, we were getting a bit worried there," Martin added. Ben looked down at Cassie and said, "Nothing we couldn't handle." Suddenly, they started to hear some commotion coming from down the hall. 

Professor McGonigall and Professor Umbridge started walking into the castle, arguing about practical punishments against students. Cassie hid herself a little behind Ben because she knew this was about Madam Pomfrey telling McGonigall about her and Harry's detention. 

She didn't want things to escalate like this!

"Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared," Umbridge announced to the crowd of students watching this confrontation. "Cornelius will want to take immediate action." With that, she looked to McGonigall, then continued up to her office, leaving everyone a bit stunned. 

"What do you think that means?" Amanda asked as she stood close to Martin. "Don't know," he told her. Ben could see Cassie overthinking the whole thing, so he took her hand and led her back into the Great Hall. "Don't think about it, darling," he told her. 

They sat down and Ben watched as Cassie merely picked at her food. "It's my fault," she mumbled. "If I hadn't had said anything..." Ben put his hand over her's and said, "If you hadn't, your hand would be infected and you could be seriously ill. Cass, what you did was the right thing."

Hermione, who had joined them, said, "He's right. Had McGonigall never known, Umbridge could be doing this to more kids. Not that it'll stop her, but now she knows to keep an eye out." That made Cassie feel a bit better and she started eating. 

Ever since Umbridge and McGonigall had their disagreement, things took a turn for the worst. Umbridge got permission from Fudge to practically take over Hogwarts and observe it, create new rules...it was annoying.

The day after she had taken over, Cassie and Harry were walking to class and saw Umbridge jotting down notes on every student she saw. She gave the twins a smug look when they passed, which just irked them.

Cassie felt like she was being targeted by her some days. If she would even voice an opinion in class, she would get a detention. Ben tried defending her, but every time he did, he, too, would get a detention. 

Only Cassie's detention was a lot worse. Her hand got infected over the amount of times she had to write sentences with that damned quill.

"She can't keep doing this," Ben said as he sat with her on the hospital bed. He was gently holding her bandaged hand. "I agree," Professor McGonigall said. She had come to see Cassie when she got word of her injury. 

"Can't you do something about it?" Ben asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice. The Professor sighed and shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Mr. Cumberbatch. Not without Professor Dumbledore's help."