CASSIA ━ harry james potter (1)

xvi. the phoenix and the devil

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NEWS OF MARYAM AHMED AND THE FACT SHE SLAPPED DRACO MALFOY certainly had evaporated throughout the school in the coming days. Not only had she shouted in Graham Montague's face the morning of the Quidditch match, snatched the Quaffle out of his hands during the game and apologised on behalf of her own team's nuisance behaviour, but she'd slapped the Slytherin golden boy. People had begun to gather that Maryam Ahmed was a force to be reckoned with. She had, actually, been commended by Fred and George Weasley — the eccentric twins had gone up to Maryam in the Hospital Wing the next day and personally offered their respects. Safe to say, they each had a mutual hatred for the Malfoy boy.

     But no reaction had ever beat that of Daphne Greengrass's, the moment she found out Harry Potter had asked her twin sister on a date. The older Greengrass (by seven minutes, just remember), had begun jumping up on Cassia's dorm room bed with a shout of "Holy fuck Cassia!". It was probable that even those boys in the dormitories the other end from the girls could have heard the excited Greengrass's yell. It was loud. One could have thought Daphne was even happier than Cassia herself.

Yet it seemed to be Theodore Nott that had to repeatedly sneak glances of his best friend while they continued with their affairs in the library. It was a little over a week since the deed had happened and Harry asked Cassia Greengrass on a date around December time, and she and Theo were in the library, with the excuse of their homework preceding them. O.W.L work was plentiful, and wouldn't get done itself.

Neither would the investigation into the supposed tale of Enoch Abercrombie... a man who'd divorced his wife so abruptly and without explanation that their only daughter had to live with the mystery of her parents separating for a reason completely unheard of, a man who was admittedly selfish and benefited others solely for his own advantage, who was apparently seen in the graveyard the night Lord Voldemort was brought back to life. Yet he had never been convicted in his life of having any allegiances with the Death Eaters. It was strange, and had so many unfilled gaps, and none of it added up. Or rather, nothing backed it up.

For all they knew, a man capable of the things Enoch could do would be able to be a Death Eater — yet anything in the theorised evidence of the library, where so many of his old Governor meeting archives, files and articles laid, collecting dust, seemed to say nothing regarding the matter. The archives section was empty of people, pretty much. That was until the moment Cassia Greengrass decided to go up to Madam Pince and ask: "Would you be able to show me where the Governor Archives are?" The frowning woman had given the Slytherin a weirded out look, but showed her anyways.

(The place where all the archives were kept was, without a doubt, the quietest place in the library. And it was growing less and less dusty with the amount of time Cassia was spending in it. It's become her new place to study, because of how peaceful it is compared to the rest of the "quiet" library. Even Theo joined her, agreeing that there was no better place for him to finish that blasted Transfiguration essay.)