Later that evening, Cassia was reading in the common room, trying to leave it as late as possible until she went up to the dorm, so Poppy would be asleep whilst she unpacked.

She still hadn't talked to her. She didn't want to.

"Cassia..." said a sing-song voice behind her.

"What?" Cassia turned around to see Harry and Ron behind her, both grinning. "Seriously, what?"

"Nothing, just that the boy you do not have a crush on is outside," Ron said with a grin.

"Cedric?" Cassia frowned.

They nodded.

She got up off the sofa quicker than she should've, and walked towards the portrait door, opening it and jumping down to see that the older, taller boy was standing nervously to the side.

"Hey?" Cassia asked, walking up to him, very, very unsure of how this was going to go.

"Hey, uh..." Cedric said, his eyes flitting around her face and then eventually settling on hers. He admitted. "I just, uh... I just wanted to speak to you."

"Okay...?" Cassia asked, unsure of how to take this and giggling slightly. Cedric smiled at her and she couldn't help but think he was a thousand times more beautiful when he did.

"Sorry, I just- this is probably a bit strange," Cedric said. "But I- I wanna get to know you."

This came out in such a rush but Cassia still felt her heart skip a beat at it.

"Wh- what?" She asked, still not believing it.

"I... I want to get to know you, Cassia," Cedric said, slightly less fast this time. "I know this might be a bit of a shock but I just- I've seen you a bit over the past few years and I think you're really cool, and you can play quidditch so well and I just want to get to know you."

Cassia was unsure of how to take this, but this praise of her made her stomach flutter and her cheeks warm. This was the best she'd felt in weeks, especially as she smiled gently back at him.

"Thank you," she said, eyes shining. "Um... I'd like to get to know you too, Cedric."

"Really?" The boy questioned, excitement flashing on his face.

"Really," Cassia smiled.

In her head, she was saying; I might as well do it and have fun this year because next year my father's probably gonna get Draco to watch me at all times, even in my sleep.

"Well- well that's amazing!" Cedric said. "D- d'you wanna take a walk with me right now?"

"I'm sorry, I can't, I told Seamus I'd play him at chess," Cassia said. "But we could meet at some point this week?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," Cedric grinned. "Have fun playing chess, then."

"I won't, the only person that can beat Seamus is Ron," Cassia said with a laugh. "But I'm gonna keep trying."

Cedric grinned. "See you later, Cassia."

Smiling so hard her face would probably split, Cassia watched him go.

Now, she thought as she watch him turn the corner. How do I cool my cheeks down so Harry and Ron don't take the piss out of me?

❦︎❦︎❦︎

After two gruelling games of chess with Seamus and one each with Harry, Ron and Hermione, Cassia walked up to the dormitory and slipped inside.

Looking around, she registered that Parvati and Lavender weren't there, she had seen them downstairs, and Hermione was still downstairs.

Poppy, however, was sat on her bed, reading a book.

Shit.

And Cassia tried to slip out, but-

"Just fucking stay. I've seen you already."

Poppy hardly ever swore. Like, never.

So why was she starting now?

"Okay," Cassia mumbled, getting ahold of her trunk and Oswald in his cage and making a mental note to take him to the owlrey in the morning.

She sighed, going about and getting everything sorted and organised. Poppy continued reading, but if Cassia had been paying attention, she would've noticed that not a single page had been turned.

And then eventually, in a moment of silence, Poppy took a deep breath.

"Listen," she started, eyes unfocused, staring at a random point in the distance. "I... I get why you didn't stand up for us. That's not the bit I'm mad about."

"Really?" Cassia couldn't keep the bite out of her tone.

"No," Poppy said.

"Then tell me!" Cassia found herself imploring. "Tell me why you're mad at me!"

"I'm mad because even though it's over, even though you're safe, you still won't tell me what's going o-"

"Over?" Cassia almost laughed. "Safe? You have no idea, Poppy! No fucking idea!"

"Cassia-"

"No!" Cassia yelled, turning her back on her supposed best friend and digging in her trunk for that tiny piece of parchment. The one her father had sent her after the world cup-

Once she found it she stomped back over to Poppy and thrust the parchment into her face. "There, Poppy! There! Yes it may seem like I'm enjoying myself and yes maybe I'm trying to have fun but you know what? Sue me! Sue me for wanting to get a little joy in my life before my so-called family ruins it-"

Poppy stood up. "Cassia, I didn't r-"

"I don't care!" Cassia yelled, already on her feet. Her voice went back down as she hissed. "You think this is over? You think everything's fine? After this year I'm going to die, Poppy. Though whether that be metaphorically or physically I don't know."

"Cassia-"

"I don't wanna hear it."

"Cass, listen-"

"No."

"Just please Cass-"

"SHUT UP!"

With a flick of her wand, Cassia wrenched the curtains around her bed shut and let her body hit her bed. She couldn't cry, because Poppy would hear the sobs.

But she could still break inside.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

Cassia wasn't sure how to fix this.

It was morning now, and the blonde girl was sat in Defence Against the Dark Arts next to Hermione. She wasn't sure how that had happened, but it had something to do with Poppy, who was sat directly in front of her, sitting with Padma, her sister.

And Cassia wasn't sure if she should reach out and touch the girl's shoulder, trying to reconnect, or whether she should just leave her be.

But she decided on the latter, because she couldn't deal with the first option at the moment.

Professor Moody was stood at the front of the class, introducing himself in that moment.

"Alastor Moody," he said in his clear, yet gruff, voice. "Auror, ministry malcontent, and now, your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I'm here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?"

Both eyes, the real and fake one, scanned over all the students.

"When it comes to the dark arts," he started. "I believe in a practical approach."

Good.

"But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?"

Hermione answered first. "Three, sir."

"And they are so named?"

Hermione swallowed. "Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them will-"

"Earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban, correct," Moody snarled. "Now, the ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do, but I say different. You need to know what you're up against, you need to be prepared, and you need to find another place to stick your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr Finnigan!"

Everyone turned to Seamus and Cassia smirked.

"Ah, no way," the boy muttered. "The old codger can see through things."

Moody threw the chalk in his hand across the room.

"And hear across classrooms!"

Cassia wasn't sure whether she liked or hated this guy.

"So," Moody looked round at all of them. "Which curse shall we see first? Weasley!" He yelled suddenly, causing Ron to jump.

"Yes?"

"Stand."

He got up very slowly and when he was up, Moody said. "Give us a curse."

"Well, m-my dad did tell me about one," Ron stammered. "The imperius curse?"

"Ah yes, your father would know about that one," nodded Moody. "Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why."

He walked back to the board and beyond it to where a bunch of creatures in glass tubes were. Out of one he picked a spider.

He walked back to the class, pointing his wand at the spider and saying. "Engorgio."

The spider swelled up, becoming larger as Moody then said. "Imperio."

Instantly, at the flick of his wand, the spider flew through the air and landed on Neville and Seamus' desk.

"Don't worry, completely harmless!" Moody chimed in as he made the spider land on Crabbe's head, the boy squirming and squealing.

Cassia was laughing as the spider landed on Poppy's arm, but when it did, she cut it off. She wasn't going to laugh at the girl when their relationship was as it was at the moment.

But when the spider landed on Ron's head she was laughing again, for she knew the boy's deep rooted fear of spiders and found it funny.

"What are you laughing at?" Moody demanded at, Cassia saw with a jolt, Draco.

She stopped laughing as it landed on him, as well. She hadn't seen him properly since that night, and she could still hear him yelling her name.

"CASSIA!"

"Talented, isn't she?" Moody said with a chuckle. "What should I make her do next? Jump out the window?" He flew her near said window. "Drown herself?"

He hovered her over a bucket of water, and by now the whole class had gone silent. Despite it being funny before, it was now clear how this curse was unforgivable, and how it could be abused.

Moody, however, brought the spider back and looked around the room at the class again.

"Scores of witches and wizard's have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding because they were under the imperius curse," Moody explained. "But here's the thing. How do we sort out the liars?"

Cassia knew that veritiserum, the truth telling potion, would, but she didn't mention it.

Because her mother and father had most likely claimed this when they got accused of being in Voldermort's inner circle. Actually, they probably had, because she knew now that they had been.

"Another, another," Moody went on, and quite a few hands went up this time. Cassia's didn't. She knew the other two, she knew all three, actually, but she didn't want to say them, let alone see them.

"Longbottom, is it?" Moody looked at said boy. "Up."

Neville slowly got up, eyes levelled at the ground. "There's the, um... the cruciatus curse."

This one, in Cassia's opinion, was the worst.

"Correct, correct!" Moody nodded. "Come! Come!"

He led Neville up to his desk and got the spider, which was now just resting on it, pointing his wand at it. "Crucio!"

It was slow, at first. But not before long, the spider started to squeal and writhe, in obvious pain. And Cassia didn't want to think it but she knew her parents or at least her father had probably used it before, and her aunt had definitely-

But Neville's pain was clearly worse than hers. Because he was watching the spider with his face screwed up, and tears were starting to appear in his eyes, and Cassia knew the pain on his face, she saw it in her's a lot, and it was not okay for it to be on his.

So she cried out. "Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him? STOP IT!"

Moody didn't appear to have been seeing Neville's reaction, but once he had he stopped it immediately. The spider stopped squealing, and went still, but Neville's face didn't fix so easily.

Cassia wasn't aware that she had started to cry until she felt a tear slipping down her cheek.

"Um..." Moody took the spider and deposited it on Cassia's desk. The girl refused to look at it, or him, and she also refused to acknowledge the stares she was getting from half the class.

Then Moody asked. "Would you like to give us the last curse, Miss Malfoy?"

Cassia looked down, murmuring it. "Avada Kedavra."

Moody nodded, raising his wand at the spider. "Avada Kedavra!"

A flash of green light, and the spider fell on its back, legs up in the air before they folded in on themselves.

Cassia was still refusing to acknowledge it.

"The killing curse," Moody clarified. "Only one person is known to have survived it... and that very person is in this room."

She wasn't going to look at Potter. She wasn't.

But little did she know that Potter was already looking at her.