Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

76. An Unpleasant Entanglement

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX;

AN UNPLEASANT ENTANGLEMENT

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The trip to Hogsmeade that was supposed to take place in March had been cancelled – not to anyone's surprise, but much to Ron's displeasure. It was supposed to have taken place on his birthday, and he was apparently looking forward to it.

"Well," Cassie told him the day before his birthday, in an attempt to cheer him up, "at least you've got Apparation lessons to look forward to.."

He only glared at her in reply. She stifled a knowing laugh; from what she'd heard, Apparation lessons were not going well for all parties involved. Their Ministry-Approved teacher could not so much as answer a simple question, so the students were practically useless when it came to actually performing the art of Apparation. There had only been three lessons – once a week since they had begun in February – and, as Harry had put it, Hermione sounded as though she were the only one who could successfully get somewhere.

   In other news, Cassie was now allied with Harry against Ron and Hermione to try and prove that Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. They were together into the darkest hours of night, sitting across from each other on Harry's bed, poring over the Marauders' Map and snacking on chocolate frogs. One night, at nearly one a.m., Cassie could have sworn she saw Malfoy's name disappear from the map entirely. She nudged Harry and his head fell from its resting place on her shoulder; he jerked awake with an incoherent mumble.

   "Harry, his name's gone," she breathed, pointing to the spot where it had last read 'Draco Malfoy' on the parchment.

   "Can't be," Harry mumbled, his eyes squinting. He adjusted his glasses and shook his head. "Where could he have gone?"

   "He can't be leaving the castle, can he?"

   "The map never lies," Harry replied quietly.

   It was a quiet sort of night after that. Harry fell back asleep around two, leaving Cassie to her own devices. She ate a couple more chocolate frogs and inspected the map for another hour before her eyes unwillingly drifted shut and she fell asleep.

   What felt like only a few minutes later, Cassie awoke to Harry wishing Ron a happy birthday. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. With a start, she realized she was still in Harry's bed, and she sat up so quickly that her head made painful contact with the bedpost. She grimaced and rubbed the sore spot, though still hastily climbed out of Harry's bed.

When she looked over to Ron, he had already dug into the piles of birthday gifts and cauldron cakes on his bed.

   "Happy birthday, Ron," said Cassie. She watched as he swallowed half a cauldron cake in a single bite. "Aren't you gonna save any room for breakfast?"

   "There's just something about these cauldron cakes..." His gaze flickered up to Cassie for a second before his jaw dropped and he forgot about the sweets in his hands. "Oh, sweet Merlin, you're beautiful."

   Harry dropped his left shoe. Cassie, who had been making Harry's bed for him, stopped abruptly and turned to face Ron. She shared a perplexed glance with Harry. "Uh... what?"

   "How did I not see it before?" Ron stood from his bed and rambled over to Cassie, extending a hand to run it through her hair awkwardly. She ducked away from the gesture, still much too bewildered to say anything. "Cassie, I... I think I love you..."

Cassie did the only sensible thing she could think of at the moment and brought her hand up to slap Ron across the face. He recovered quickly, however, and placed a delicate hand on his own cheek, a lovestruck look in his eyes. "Ow," he said dreamily. "I love a lady who can hit well."