musical mood: sour grapes - le sserafim

"George, why is there a bra outside of your bed?"

Cass shot awake at the sound of Fred's voice, just outside of the bed the two had shared. She lifted her head off of his bare chest, glancing around them. They'd closed the curtains around them, and she felt George stir against her.

"What?" George frowned, his voice slow as he struggled to wake up.

Cass held her breath.

She could hear Fred rustling around, likely picking up the bra she'd so carelessly left on the floor. She mentally kicked herself for being so stupid. "This isn't Angie's, her tits are bigger, and she doesn't even own a bra this colour...holy shit, did you sleep with Cassie? Is she in there?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." George said, smirking down at Cass, who's face had gone a bright red.

"I know you're in there, Cassie."

"No I'm not." She gave up, burying herself in George's arm.

"Well, I'll leave you two be." More rustling, followed by Fred's laughter and the sound of the door shutting.

"You can come out now, Cassie." George poked her in the back of the head, also laughing.

She shook her head, the humiliation growing in her as every second went by. They two hadn't had sex, really, they'd only slept, but she knew Fred wouldn't believe them if they said so. At least Cass had gotten perhaps the best night of sleep in her entire life.

Cass felt his hands travelling on her back, his fingers drawing little symbols against the fabric of his jersey. She smiled at his gentle touch, still hiding in his arm. "I can't believe that just happened."

"Don't worry, Fred won't say a word. What happens in the dorm stays in the dorm."

Eventually, Cass crawled out of his arms, planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Did you sleep well?"

She nodded. "Best eight hours of my life. You?"

"It took me a while to fall asleep, but I didn't mind."

"Why?"

He raised his eyebrows, like her question was stupid. "I got to stare at you. It was hard to close my eyes, to look away from you. Really, you looked so...peaceful. I haven't seen you look like that in years. If ever."

She wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"I love you." Cass eventually said.

"I love you too."

*

The moment Cass returned to her dorm room, she was met with the eyes of all of her dormmates on her.

"Where were you?" Naia asked the moment she shut the door behind her. Her brow was furrowed together with an expression of anxiety.

"Nowhere. Doesn't matter." Cas frowned, moving towards her bed, where she had planned on finally getting some studying done.

Bethany blocked her path, and before Cass could react, she reached up and slapped her, just how Dahlia had done on the first day of school.

"Beth!" Ana cried, jumping off of her bed and racing to her side, pulling her away.

"What the fuck was that for?!" She stared at Bethany in disbelief as she reached up and clenched her cheek.

"For what you said about Adelaide! You're such a bitch, Crouch!" Bethany shook herself out of Ana's grip, and for a moment, Cass thought she might hit her again, but she didn't.

She blinked rapidly, searching her mind for what the fuck she was on about. "What did I say about Adelaide?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, Dahlia told me everything. You called her crazy! Made fun of...what she did. You made fun of my little sister, Crouch. She could've died, and you thought it was the punchline of some sort of joke."

"I didn't...I didn't mean it as a joke." Cass stared at her, remembering her heated conversation with Dahlia. She'd gone too far, that was certainly true, by dragging Adelaide into the middle of it, but Dahlia certainly hadn't been innocent either, and Cass definitely hadn't warranted this reaction. "I was drunk and angry and Dahlia was calling me mad, I'm sorry."

"Oh, go to hell!"

"What do you want me to do? I'll go apologize to her and Dahlia if you want me to."

"We want you out of our dorm."

She froze, eyes flickering between Bethany and her other roommates. Luna, per usual, didn't seem to paying an ounce of attention, staring out the window at something the rest of them couldn't see. Padma was sitting on her bed, awkwardly messing with her hair. Ana remained standing, clearly close to tears, and Naia was at the far side of the room, a neutral expression on her face, like she was trying to conceal her emotions.

"You want me out of our dorm...because I insulted your sister? Bethany, I was drunk. Dahlia was coming after me. It just slipped out! I'm sorry!"

Bethany shook her head, staring at Cass in disbelief. "We knew you were crazy, Crouch, but we didn't think you were that much of a bitch. None of us have been comfortable with you since you helped kill two people last year, and you've just proved it to us that we were right. You're a shit person."

At the mention of what had happened the year prior, Cass froze. "I didn't mean to."

"How do we know that book you brought in wasn't intended to hurt people - to hurt us?"

"What? I would never hurt you guys - you know that book, Bethany! That was the one we stole from Quirrell, in our first year!"

"Yeah, then why did you still have it?" She raised her chin.

"I don't know! I didn't pack it, I didn't mean to!"

"Bethany, please, cut it out." Ana jumped in, stepping in between the two, as if to prevent a physical fight. "Cass would never hurt any of us, we know that."

"Maybe she would in a mental breakdown. You do know she's psychotic, right?"

"It's psychotic depression, there's a fucking difference!" Cass snapped.

Ana ignored her, taking a deep breath. Tears pricked in her green eyes, threatening to spill down her freckled face, and Cass wanted to punch Bethany for putting sweet, kind Ana in this position. "Cass, we took a vote. They want you out."

"They want me out..." Cass repeated the words, them feeling foreign on her lips. "You voted me out? You're kicking me out of my own bloody dorm? Are you fucking serious?"

"I'm sorry." Ana pressed her lips together, a tear finally escaping her eye. She wiped it away quickly. "It was two to three. They reckon we shouldn't trust you."

"Who voted me out?"

"Cass..."

"Who. Voted. Me. Out." She glanced between her dormmates, the people she had assumed were her friends.

Ana shifted her weight, another tear falling. She didn't bother to wipe this one away. "Bethany...Padma...and Naia."

Each name felt like a stab in the gut. Bethany made sense. Padma, less so, though she'd been distant this year, she hadn't imagined they harboured any bad blood. But when she said Naia's name, she had to physically stop herself from falling over. She'd loved all her dormmates, but she'd always considered herself closest to Naia. When she looked over at her, Naia couldn't meet her eyes, refused to meet her eyes.

"Fine." Cass's throat ached, and she suddenly craved water. Not a glass of it, but enough to submerge herself in, enough to drown her. "Fine, I'll go. But I won't ever be coming back."

*

Cass packed her stuff quickly - not that she had much of it to take, just textbooks and spare clothes. She cast a spell to extent her bag so all of it could fit, until she found a new place to stay. George's dorm, was an obvious option, but she didn't want to bother him, and sleeping with a bunch of boys every night certainly wasn't appealing. Maybe her Gryffindor friends, Lavender and Parvati, but with Padma having voted against her, she couldn't imagine Parvati shared a different opinion than that of her sister's.

Several hours later, she didn't know how, but she found herself at the top of the Astronomy tower, staring down at the snow covered ground, hundreds of feet below her. It would be easy to jump, to get it over with, but she decided against it. As much as she craved ending everything, she refused to give Bethany or Dahlia the satisfaction. Unless they'd feel guilty, but she didn't want that either, didn't want their delayed, useless pity.

"Are you going to jump?"

She turned around, expecting to see Barty standing there, but instead, it was Theodore. His hair had grown out slightly, not as long as Henry's, but certainly longer than most of the boys in their year.

"No." Cass answered simply, returning her gaze to the ground.

"Good."

A silence fell between the two.

"What are you doing up here, anyways?" She asked, but didn't look at him as he stepped next to her, resting his elbows on the railing that prevented them from falling to their deaths.

He shrugged. "Needed some air. You?"

"Same."

"Ana told me what happened."

Cass pressed her lips together in a thin line.

"For what it's worth, she didn't want you kicked out. She knows you wouldn't hurt her, or any of them. She's really sorry."

Cass shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I'm not mad at her. Not her or Luna."

"I love her, you know?"

"Ana?"

Theodore nodded. It had begun to snow, gentle snowflakes falling in their hair. "My father will kill me if he finds out. We've been trying to avoid each other in public, but fuck, it's so hard. It hurts so much, Crouch. I love her, and it hurts."

"Don't call me Crouch."

"Alright."

"I reckon Ana loves you too. She seems rather smitten - I can't imagine her making out with someone she doesn't love in my bed, at least."

A blush crept onto Theodore's cheeks. "Sorry again, about that."

"It's fine." She laughed, though it came out dry, like she didn't really mean it. "For what it's worth, I'm happy for you two. And...if you really love her, it'll work out, in one way or another."

"Thank you."

Another silence fell between them, though it wasn't at all awkward. It was the silence that two friends could have, without having to force conversation.

"You've been acting funny this year, Theodore." Cass eventually said, finally turning to face him. "What's going on?"

He shook his head, snow falling out of his hair. "It's nothing."

"You and Henry are friends again, I see."

"Yeah. Well, he had to come home over the summer. We made up."

"Why'd you even fight in the first place? I never understood."

Theodore's expression contorted into one of hurt, but only for a second, a blink and you miss it moment. Just as it had come, it left, his face returning to a blank stare. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, perhaps the most vulnerable she'd ever heard him. "He left me, in that house. Mum...died, and he abandoned me."

Cass gulped, unsure how to respond. She'd never considered how Henry running away would've affected his younger brother, but now she realized where Theodore's anger harboured from. He had needed Henry, and he had left. She understood why, she understood both sides, actually, it was impossible not to feel bad for the Nott brothers and the tragedy between them.

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "It is what it is. He's back now...but I wish he had taken me with. Insisted I come with him, fuck the consequences. Fuck our father."

She reached over, grabbing his hand and entwining their fingers. His skin was cold, colder than it should be, even outside in the snowy weather.

Theodore took a deep breath. "Cass...I have to tell you something. There's something you should know."

She turned to him, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

His brown eyes were avoiding looking at her, instead staring at the ground, kicking the thin layer of snow that had formed beneath them. He was clearly contemplating if he should speak or not.

"What is it?" She urged when Theodore said nothing.

"Nothing. Never mind." He shook his head, his body suddenly having gone stiff.

"Come on, it clearly isn't nothing."

Theodore gulped. "Er...Henry fancies you."

She frowned. All that build up for that? Surely he hadn't meant to say that, surely there was something deeper going on.

"Okay...are you sure that's all?"

"Yeah. That's all." He let go of her hand, and began to walk away, avoiding her eye as he did. "See you later, Crouch."

"Don't call me that!" She called after him as he shut the door, and she was left alone once again.

*

Eventually, Cass decided she had to sleep somewhere, and wound up at the Gryffindor table during dinner, sitting next to George. She was about to open her mouth to ask him if she could spend the next few nights - or perhaps the rest of the year, in his bed, but before she could, George spoke, his eyes alite in mischief.

"Guess what."

"What?"

"Fred slipped the candies to Filch."

Cass's eyebrows jumped up, and she turned to properly look at him. "Really?"

Just as she did, George's eyes grew. "Shit, what happened to your face?"

She reached up to the spot where Bethany had hit her, having forgotten it was there. It stung at her touch, and she withdrew her hand. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

He opened his mouth to object, but before he could, Umbridge came running in the Great Hall, being swiftly followed by Filch.

"But I love you!" He cried, his face wearing a pathetic, lovesick expression.

"This is highly inappropriate, Argus!" Umbridge insisted, clearly trying to keep her composure as the entirety of the student body turned to face them. "We have a professional relationship! Nothing more!"

"I love you! Dolores, I love you, please, please love me back!" Filch fell to his knees, eyes wide as he pleaded. Umbridge stared down at him, her toad-like face horrified. "I'd do anything, anything for your love!"

"Get up, Argus! I insist!" She insisted, her voice shrill. McGonagall stepped up from the professors table, approaching the two with her wand in hand.

"I'll take care of this, Dolores." She waved a hand, sending Umbridge backwards. "He's clearly been dosed with a love potion - I'll have him sent to the hospital wing."

Umbridge's face was flushed with embarrassment as McGonagall waved her wand, knocking Filch unconscious before he could protest otherwise.

The Great Hall burst into a massive roar of laughter as McGonagall began to levitate the unconscious caretaker, leading his limp frame out of the Great Hall. While she was trying to maintain a similar impartial composure, Cass could see she was holding back a smile of amusement. She took that as a sign of success, she'd managed to amuse perhaps the strictest of all their professors.

Umbridge exited the Great Hall immediately after them, evidentially too shaken up by the incident to deal with the aftermath. Cass would've pitied her, had she not hated the pink bitch so much. Simply looking at her made her bad hand ache.

"What happened to your face, Cass?" Angelina spoke this time, frowning as she eyed her.

"Nothing." She repeated, likely sounding like a broken record. Angelina stared at her for a moment, frowning, before turning back to her conversation with Fred, and Cass moved to face George, lowering her voice. "Listen, I have a favour to ask."

"A favour, you say?" His eyebrows jumped up. "Well, ask away, dear Cassie. There's little I'd say no to when it comes to you."

She couldn't help but grin at his words. "I...sort of got kicked out of my dorm."

"What? Why?"

"Well, they reckon I went too far with what I said to Dahlia about Adelaide. Bethany was really upset, and I suppose she has the right to be." Cass's voice went even quieter, as George nodded. "They don't trust me, after last year. So...I sort of need a place to sleep. I'd rather not sleep on the common room couches for the rest of the year."

"They kicked you out because of what happened last year?" George repeated her words, staring at her in disbelief. "But that wasn't your fault."

She shook her head. It had been her fault, but she wasn't about to get into that now, not at the Gryffindor table in the middle of dinner. It would only lead to an argument, one she hadn't the energy to participate in. "I don't know. But there was a vote."

"Can they even do that? Kick you out, I mean. Surely Flitwick can make them let you back in."

"I don't know, but I don't want to stay there anyways. Not when they don't trust me, not when they think I'm going to hurt them."

He went silent for a second, glancing over at what she assumed was the Ravenclaw table. She hadn't the heart to follow his gaze, to stare at the people who had used to be her friends. "Well, of course you can stay with us. Though I will warn you, Fred is awfully loud in the mornings."

"Thank you." She leaned up and kissed him, earning a loud, forced gagging sound from Fred.

Cass just rolled her eyes.

*

The rest of November went by rather quickly, bleeding into December. The days seemed to morph together, without much of interest happening. Cass still had a few friends - Ana still spoke to her in the halls, and she began sitting next to Theodore during classes (though he'd been acting funny again). She'd attempted to speak to Henry one time after class, but he'd quickly made up an excuse to leave. While Cass wanted to believe that his behaviour was due to Theodore's claims of him fancying her, she wasn't naive. Something was going on, and she just hoped Henry was safe.

George and Fred's two other dormmates, Lee Jordan and Kenneth Towler, were a couple, and rarely left each other's sides. Or beds. The noises they made at night, when they thought everyone else were asleep...well, it certainly made Cass wish her own dormmates hadn't been so cruel as to kick her out. Kenneth had offered her his bed when she'd first moved in with the boys, since he never actually used it, but she declined, preferring to spend her nights in George's warm embrace.

There hadn't been any more Barty sightings, and she liked to imagine that was due to George's consistent presence, that his calming aura had rubbed off onto her.

There was a final Dumbledore's Army meeting before the end of term, though Cass didn't attend, not wanting to face her ex-friends. Seeing them in class was torture enough, and she figured she knew the magic Potter would be teaching already. Instead, she poured over her textbooks in bed, not even noticing when George returned to their room until he sat next to her.

"I reckon Harry is snogging Cho right now."

Cass raised her eyebrows, shifting awkwardly at the mention of the girl who'd she'd essentially competed with over Cedric the year prior.

When she didn't say anything, George continued. "They've been ogling each other at every Dumbledore's Army lesson. Haven't you noticed?"

"I don't really pay much attention to who Potter fancies. Though I always thought him and your sister would end up together. She was pretty head over heels for him, wasn't she?"

George shrugged. "She used to be. Doubt she is anymore, Gin practically has men lining up out the castle doors for her. Got to scare some of them away, you know, big brother duties and whatnot."

"You're ridiculous."

"You're beautiful."

They said there like that for a long while, curled up while Cass read her textbook and George stared at her as though she was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. She didn't mind his eyes on her, it felt nice, comforting, like nothing could touch her while he was there. It was hard, in times like these, to remember how she used to not like him, how he used to drive her mad. Maybe, had she given him and Fred more of a chance earlier, they could've started their relationship long ago - and not the brief fake one that had existed only for personal gain, but a real, dedicated love that she felt now.

"Where'd you go off to?"

Cass frowned, looking up at him. "What?"

"You got that look, where your mind is clearly elsewhere."

"I was just thinking about us."

His eyebrows jumped up, a smile curving on his lips. "Us? I'm intrigued."

"I realized I fancied you at the beginning of fourth year. That's partially why I cut off our fake relationship. I wanted a real one, and I didn't know how to express that."

"You'd never been good with romantic feelings, have you?"

Cass laughed, shaking her head. "I'd never been around a happy couple in my life, before coming to Hogwarts. The only actual couple I ever interacted with on a consistent basis were Connor's parents, Catherine and Malcolm, and they fought constantly. I guess I just never learned how those things worked. Connor quite literally had to spell out my feelings for Cedric to me."

At the mention of Cedric, she felt George's muscles stiffen, and she regretted bringing him up. He bit down on his lip, before taking a deep breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course. Anything."

"If Cedric were still here...would you have chosen him instead?"

"No." Cass answered almost immediately, shaking her head. "I fancied him, sure, but I didn't love him. He was nice, and he was good looking, but he was just a fantasy."

A silent passed.

Eventually, George spoke. "Shit, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. I shouldn't put you in an awkward position, to speak ill of the dead."

"I'm not speaking ill of him. I'm being honest. Cedric was wonderful, and I'd do anything, anything to bring him back, to let him live the long and happy life he deserved. But if he was here, and if he wanted me, I'd still chose you." Cass turned to face him, to stare into his brown eyes to convince the man she loved that she was telling the absolute truth. "I could live a thousand lives, with a thousand different men, and I'd always choose you. Every time, it would always be you, George Weasley. It's always been you, and it'll always be you. For as long as you have me, I'll be yours."

George didn't say anything, instead he simply wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. She nuzzled into him and breathed deep, inhaling his scent and allowing her stomach to fill with butterflies. "I'm never letting you go, Cassie. Never."

"I'm not going anywhere. We have all the time in the world, and I plan on spending every last moment with you."

*

At some point, the two had fallen asleep. Maybe it was the calming warmth of George's jumper on her cheek, or the steady beat of his heart, or simply because she felt completely at peace with him, but when her eyes fluttered closed, she dreamt of a world were Cedric and her father were alive, Barty hadn't existed, and her friends didn't hate her. Usually, a dream like this would've depressed her, when she came to her senses and realised it wasn't real, but this time, she liked it. It was a comfort, the fact that maybe, in another parallel universe, nothing horrible had happened.

It was past midnight when she woke up, not peacefully at all, but to the sound of the door to the Gryffindor boy's dorm swinging open.

George jerked awake at the sound, shooting upright and nearly knocking her out of the bed, and she stumbled to keep herself on the mattress.

Fred, who was in his own bed, yelped in surprise, and she could hear a rustling in the bed that Kenneth and Lee shared.

"What the - Professor McGonagall?" Cass blinked rapidly, just as shocked to see her as McGonagall was to her.

"Miss Crouch, what in the name of Merlin are you doing in here?"

"Er..."

"Never mind, never mind, I don't want to know." The Professor had her hair down, which Cass had never seen before, and was wearing a silky white nightgown. Clearly, her visit to their dorm had been impromptu. "Mr. Weasley, I need you two to come to my office. Immediately."

"Which one?" Fred yawned, stretching his arms out. He clearly couldn't sense the urgency in the professor's voice.

"Both of you." George glanced at Cass, clearly not wanting to leave her, and McGonagall, seeing the look on his face, sighed. "Miss Crouch, you're welcome to attend as well."