Mischief Managed

Chapter 4

When she looked up at the sky, she could see her broom coming. Timing it perfectly, she stepped on a large rock, then hopped up on to the broom. She's never felt more safe! The dragon was on a chain and didn't have the strength to get out of it. 

She circled the arena a few times to get it confused, then dove down towards the egg...but that damned tail smacked her right off of her broom! She fell hard on to one of the rocks, then bounced on to the floor.

It wasn't any surprise that when she tried to move, her arm was in grave pain. She thought it was broken, but when she looked down, one of the spikes from the dragon's tail was lodged right through her forearm. 

She tightly shut her eyes and let a few tears fall from the excruciating pain, but then opened them up when she heard Ben shouting again. "Run!" He shouted. "Run!" It wasn't until she was starting to be dragged away that she realized the dragon had a hold of her leg.

It was dragging her faster and faster, so she whipped out her wand and pointed it at the dragon. She was tempted to use the killing curse, but that was illegal. So she settled for something a little more mild. 

"Stupify!" She shouted. The spell hit the dragon square in the nose and it let go of her leg and started frantically shaking its head. While it was distracted with that, she got up as quickly as she could and limped over to the direction of the egg. 

Just before she got to it, the dragon saw her and let out a loud roar. It breathed fire in her direction and she quickly put her wand up and shouted, "Protego horribilis!" The fire rebounded from the shield and went back towards the dragon, causing it to burn itself. 

It immediately stopped and let out a painful roar. Cassie put down her wand and panted furiously. She fell to her knees, unable to stand up any longer. When she turned to face the egg, she saw it was literally right next to her. With a large breath of relief, she picked it up with her good arm...and the arena went crazy. 

She didn't have much time to take it all in because she was being led to have medical treatment. They took her into a tent, where Madam Pomfrey had to take out the dragon spike from her arm, then mend the hole that resided there. 

It was the most painful experience of her life, but once there was only a tiny trace of it left, she's never felt more relieved. Nevertheless, her arm was still broken which was going to take a while to heal. 

As for her leg, the only real pain was the puncture wounds from the dragon's teeth. Madam Pomfrey healed those quicker than anything and Cassie could walk normally, despite a little soreness in her ankle. 

She had two pairs of stitches on her head and one across her nose. The rest of the injuries on her face were scratches and dry blood to make matters seem worse. Once she was finished, she took her egg and came back to the arena just in time to watch Harry come flying into the arena on his scorched broomstick. 

Once he got his egg, they were both led back to the common rooms, where everyone was waiting for them. They were greeted with loud cheers and applauses. The banners people made for the task were hung up around the room.

Of course, Fred and George each picked Harry and Cassie up to show them off. Her and Harry laughed and held their hands together up high. "Open it!" People shouted as they held on to their eggs. 

Harry looked to Cassie. "At the same time?" He asked. She smiled and said, "Let's do it!" They both twisted open the top and the sides of the eggs fell open to God-awful screeching sounds. Fred and George covered their ears, causing Harry and Cassie to fall on to the floor. 

Cassie was the first to close it and Harry did the same just a second after. "What in the bloody hell was that?" A voice behind them asked. They both turned and saw Ron and Ben just uncovering their ears. 

"Ben," Cassie breathed. He looked her over, eyeing her arm and the stitches on her face with concern written in his eyes. "Cass," he breathed. He then opened his arms and she dropped her egg, running right into them. 

The entire room clapped when he engulfed his arms around her. He brought his head around to hers and kissed her with every ounce of passion he had. When he pulled away, he said, "I am so sorry. I don't know why I thought you put your name in the Goblet, but I was wrong and I am so sorry. I thought I lost you out there."

He rested his forehead against hers and breathed her in. "I love you," he whispered. She smiled with tears coming down her cheeks as she said, "I love you, too. I missed you so much." He shook his head and told her, "Never again. I will never do that to you again, I swear it."

He then took his thumb and gently brushed it across the scars on her face, then looked down at her broken arm. "Bloody hell, look at you. Does it hurt?" She shrugged and told him, "A bit. It's not as bad as it looks."

She noticed he was looking especially sad and guilty. She knew why and, frankly, she was glad he was. Before she could ask why he had changed his mind about her being the one to put her name in the Goblet, he said to her, "Let's go get you cleaned up. We can talk later, but in the meantime, you need to rest...and figure out what in the hell that egg is for."