bruises - james potter

five

James was carefully watching Cassie out of the corner of his eye, he was watching as she put both of her hands underneath her chin. Cassie slowly closed her eyes. James then took it was a chance to look at her again. He wasn't being creepy, he just wanted to know if she resembled Sirius more than just the eyes.

His eyes made their way to her face, which was now covered by her hands. Cassie's nails were bitten short, traces of green paint left on them. Then he saw a small brown and blue mark poking out at the top of her sleeve.

It was a bruise.

It looked old, yet new. It was very nasty. It wasn't a bruise that you got from falling down the stairs, James knew that because of how often he had fallen down them, you only got a small bruise and it faded quickly.

James kept looking at the bruise, wondering how it had happened. He didn't notice when Cassie turned to look at him, then where his eyes were.

He only snapped out of it when she pulled her sleeve back up to hide the bruise completely. Silently cursing herself under her breath.

"How did you get it?" James asked, meeting her eyes.

"I fell down the stairs." Cassie replied quickly, as if she had rehearsed the line many times before. James wasn't convinced.

"I mean, really how did you get it?" He asked, after a few moments, his eyes still connected with the dark-haired girls. He was still watching them as she squinted at him, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I told you, Potter, I fell down the stairs." Cassiopeia snapped furiously. James then realised that the girl had the same short temper as her brother, not waiting a moment before snapping at people.

James frowned and looked away, not bothering to press the matter anymore. The boy started back down at his parchment. It was silent for a few more minutes, the only sound being Cassie's quill scribbling across her page, before the girl quickly looked over at James, a small frown on her lips. She shook her head before looking back at her parchment, finishing the lines.

She was wondering why James was asking in the first place, it wasn't like he would actually care. She rolled her eyes at the boy, even though right now, he wasn't doing anything wrong.

They sat in silence for a while more, waiting for Professor Smith to return and let them off the detention.

They only had around an hour left before the detention ended when Professor Smith walked back into the room. He looked at the two students in surprise, like he had forgotten that they were there, which would surprise the two.

"Oh," he said with a small frown, looking between the two.

"You two can go." Cassiopeia wasted no time standing up and grabbing her bag, placing her quill and ink inside of it.

She didn't say a word before she reached the door and turned around to see James slowly putting his things away,

"Thank you, by the way." Cassie spoke up, causing James to look at her with a confused look on his face.

"For what?" The boy asked, placing his bag on the table and standing up.

"For looking after Sirius, being the family we couldn't be." And with that she left, leaving James behind, surprised by her words.

•••

Cassie groaned as she sat down at the house table besides Nova. The blonde girl only smirked at her best friend as she placed some peas on her plate, Cassie following her actions.

"That," The dark-haired girl said with a frown.

"Was the worst detention of my life. Potter was there." Nova chuckled at her friends over-dramatics, shaking her head slightly.

"Even worse then the time Madam Pomfrey made you clean out the chamber pots under the beds?"

Cassie suddenly froze, then shuddered, turning to look at Nova.

"We promised never to speak of that again." She said with a raised eyebrow, pointing her fork at the girl with every words that she said. Nova chuckled at her friend yet again and held up her hands up in a mock surrender. Cassie rolled her yes before placing her fork in her mouth.

"Why was it so bad?" Cassiopeia frowned and looked over at Nova.

"It just was, Potter wouldn't stop staring at me." The blonde was slightly surprised by this. James hadn't ever spared the two a glance, never mind actually looking at her.

"Why?" The dark-haired girl only shrugged her shoulders, eating more peas.

"I dunno, he just was." Nova nodded, then the two sat in silence for a few minutes.

"How was your day?" Cassie asked after a few moments. The blonde-haired girl quickly looked up from the table and at Cassie with a goofy grin on her face. The dark-haired girl titled her head to the side, confused.

"Evan Rosier talked to me today," That quickly explained the grin.

Evan Rosier was Nova's long term crush, he was only a year older than the two, and that made Nova fall even harder. Evan has helped the two in their third year, they had gotten lost in their way to Divination and he had helped them find their way, Nova was a blushing mess the whole time while Cassie was just standing there, wondering what shower gel to use that night. Ever since, Nova had been faring over the boy, feeling heartbroken when he got a girlfriend, then over the moon when they broke up.

"What did he say?" The dark-haired girl asked, looking down the table at where the older boy was sitting, along with seventh year Lucius Malfoy. Nova began to blush as she looked down at her food.

"He said, and I quote, 'your hair looks okay, I guess'." Cassie stared at her friend, her eyebrows furrowed.

"What did you say to him?" Nova smiled widely yet again.

"I said, 'Do you like my hair?'" Cassie mentally face palmed at her friend, shaking her head.

"Nova." She said and the blonde girl looked at her.

"Just no."

•••