"Dear Amanda,
Merlin! Of course, I remember our trip to Paris! Those late-night strolls along the Seine, the dozens of eclairs we ate, the Louvre with all the boring non-moving paintings, the Eiffel Tower (which is severely overrated) and of course your lover Jacques (could you have gone for a more stereotypical french lad?).
That trip was fantastic! A great graduation present for you, don't you think? Thank Merlin father let me go with you, I didn't get a graduation trip myself. But I won't sulk about that. Tell me, where have you and Mattheo travelled to? I can't wait to travel overseas again. Hopefully one day.
Also, about your wedding, of course I will come! I'll get back to you on that plus-one invitation if that's okay. I can't believe it! You're getting hitched! I'm so happy for you, Manda. Mattheo sounds like a great lad. I look forward to meeting him some time.
I was wondering, I have a weekend without any duties at the school in January. It's the last weekend. I know it's still a few weeks away but I was wondering if you would like to come to Hogsmeade. We can catch up over some tea at the Three Broomsticks.
Have a lovely day,
Cassie."
She tied the letter to the leg of one of the Hogwarts post owls and sent it off. She watched it soar through the sky and took a moment to breathe. This was her third letter to her sister and things were going okay so far.
They had a few nice conversations about some old memories between the two of them. Amanda told her about Mattheo and her job at the ministry. She still apologized in every letter even when Cassie had already told her it was okay.
It was nice to talk to her sister again. She had genuinely missed her. Amanda and Cassie had always been incredibly close. No matter their sisterly bickering, they loved each other through thick and thin. Well, that was until Amanda forgot to think for herself and followed their parents lead.
They were slowly rebuilding their bond and Cassie wanted to see her in real life. Letters were nice and all but seeing some face to face was much better. That way you could see their expressions, hear the way they meant certain things and understand them even without speaking.
She hoped that Amanda was being as genuine as Cassie thought that she was. What if she wasn't? What if she had built up all this hope for nothing again? She didn't want to think about that possibility.
She walked back down the staircase and over to the Potions classroom. It was mid-December and the students had very little focus left. But even so, things were going well. She was on schedule with the curriculum, very few students were struggling in her class and she felt okay again.
She and Neville were back to how they were, though whenever she heard his heart skip a beat she had to force herself to take a step back. She didn't want to hurt him or reject him but she felt like she had no choice. He deserved better. She wanted him and he wanted her but she had convinced himself that she couldn't explore whatever she felt for him.
He deserved someone like Hannah, who Cassie had noticed was obviously fancying him. She had been at Hogwarts for two and half weeks now and she was almost as close to Neville as Cassie was. She was always twirling her blonde locks around her finger whenever he spoke, whenever he made a joke she laughed incredibly loud and placed her hand on his arm in a flirty manner, and she was always asking him to hang out.
But Neville had only eyes for Cassie who tried not to notice. But Cassie had only eyes for Neville so she couldn't help but notice.
Students entered the room and Cassie flicked her wand to clean out the cauldron she had used in the previous class. It was the last class of the day; Third-Year Hufflepuff and Slytherin. They all took their seats and most of them were already lost in their own thoughts, most likely about the upcoming Christmas break.
"Good afternoon, class," she said, standing up. She had taken off her cloak and she was walking around in a pair of pants and a cosy knitted sweater. 'Too Muggle-ish' Anthony would have said. But she loved Muggle clothing, it was more comfortable and prettier than Wizard's robes.
"Good afternoon, Professor Green," they bellowed in response but with very little enthusiasm. She cleared her throat and walked over to the window, looking outside. It was raining heavily. The snow from a few weeks back had gone within two days and ever since it had been raining. She wasn't sure if it had ever stopped.
"You know," she started. "Sometimes I think that George Weasley may have dropped one of his Weather in a Bottle-products here. The rainy variant of course. I mean, it hasn't stopped in so long, has it? Does anyone know George Weasley?" She turned around. Everyone raised their hands.
"He's a legend at Hogwarts, Miss!" one student noted. She nodded, smiling. She knew about the Weasley twins' legacy all too well.
"Why yes, he is." She walked back to the front of the class. "Didn't care much about grades but oi, the Weasley twins are quite good at magic. I mean, I assume you have all been to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" They all nodded. "Well, that proves my argument, I think,"
"I actually helped them out once, with a product," she said. Their eyes went wide and she knew that she had caught the attention of every single student in the room. Fred and George Weasley were legends while she was at Hogwarts and they still were for students who hadn't even been there for their pranks.
"I was a Fifth-Year student while they were in their seventh. They were working hard on ideas and had already started selling many, many different joke products. They came to me with a question, said; "Cassie, you're proper at Potions, can you help us create something?" I said yes because well, it was everyone's dream to help them and if I could brew a potion, why not?"
"Turns out it wasn't quite the potion that I thought it would be. They wanted to - of course - create explosives. I had already said yes so I couldn't back down. So now the base of Miraculous Mystic Mayhem Makers is made with a potion that I created," she told them. They were all looking at her, wonderstruck.
"And yes, I do still get credit for it so if you ever visit the shop again, do ask George about it. I bet he'd love to tell you all about it." She spun her wand between her fingers. "But before you can visit Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, we must finish with the Shrinking Solution." A few students groaned but at least most of them had a little more motivation than before.
At dinner time, Cassie and Neville were busy in conversation. They both had grins on their lips, their forks waving around in the air with pieces of food attached to them as they were discussing something. Hannah sat down next to Neville. "No, I'm telling you, Neville, if-"
"Hi!" Hannah cheered, interrupting Cassie. They both looked at her, moving away from each other. They had been leaning closer to each other. They were so caught up in their conversation that they had forgotten about the others around them.
"Hi Hannah," Neville smiled. Cassie greeted her with a smile and took a bite of her food. She liked Hannah, Hannah was sweet. But she couldn't help but feel jealous of her. Jealousy was a nasty colour on people, Cassie knew that, but she couldn't turn it off.
"What were you talking about?" Hannah asked, waiting for her plate to fill up with dinner. Neville took a sip of his drink and then turned to her. Cassie leaned back in her chair slightly, glancing over at the other two.
"Oh, Cass here was trying to convince me that it was a swarm of Doxys that infiltrated the castle in our fifth year. You know, when the entire west tower was covered in a swarm of creatures and no one could go there? I thought it were Pixies, not Doxys," Neville explained.
"I'm telling you, Nev. You're getting it all mixed up. Pixies were in our second year. Lockhart? Remember? You were hoisted up by them!" Cassie chimed in again, grinning. He looked at her and shook his head.
"You weren't even in that class!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, but I heard the stories," she giggled. He smiled again, pushing his tongue into his cheek and shaking his head. Oh fuck. She looked at her plate again. Merlin, why did I find that so attractive?
"No, Cassie's right. It was a swarm of Doxys. Zacharias got attacked by one," Hannah said, supporting Cassie's statement. Cassie nodded and took a sip of her water.
"Fine, fine! I can't argue the both of you," he said, laughing. Hannah laughed too and Cassie saw her place her gently on Neville's arm. He didn't seem fazed by it and turned back to Cassie. "Cass, I finished that book you lent me by the way. I thought it was good, but I hated the ending."
"Ugh! Right!? The ending is awful, how could someone ever write something like that? So anti-climactic too. What do you mean she forgave her father, went back to her git of a husband and just abandoned her dreams of seeing the world because her father she spent the whole book hating died?" she agreed.
"Exactly what I was thinking! I mean, I get it if she would grief him but I did not expect her to go back to the life she spent the entire book trying to break free from!" he said. Hannah ate her food silently. Part of Cassie felt bad, another part of her wanted to continue discussing the book in detail with Neville.
"Hannah, have you ever-" owls flew into the room, interrupting their conversation. Neville got a letter, but Cassie didn't. Amanda was probably still working on a response. Neville opened his letter and she saw the colour leave his face within a second.
"Nev? Neville, what's going on?" His heart started beating faster and his eyes scanned the letter quickly. She placed her hand on his arm gently. "Neville, are you okay??" He didn't say anything, just read the letter again. She could smell the fear on him. Hannah and Cassie shared a worried look.
He finally put the letter down and turned to Cassie. "It's Gran-" he said but stopped again. She frowned a little and gently rubbed his arm. He took a deep breath. "Can we go somewhere else?" She nodded and stood up. She held his arm tightly, afraid he might collapse, and walked out of the Great Hall with him.
He was breathing fast and his legs were shaking underneath him. She took him to the greenhouses, knowing that it was his favourite place in the castle. The rain clattered on the glass roof, making deafening noises.
"Silencio," she said, waving her wand before putting it back in her cloak. Neville held himself up by pressing his palms on the desk. "Hey, oi, look at me, look at me," she said to Neville, cupping his face in her hands. She gently stroked her thumb on his cheek. Tears filled his eyes and his hands were shaking as he placed them on her arms. "Sit down."
She helped him sit down on a chair and kneeled down in front of him. He immediately took her hands in his and intertwined their fingers. "Neville, taking a few deep breaths with me, okay? In... and out... in... and out... very good, again." They breathed for a few moments until his breathing was back to normal. "Tell me, what's going on, Nev?"
He let go of one of her hands but kept holding onto the other one tightly. He fumbled in the pocket of his pants and pulled out the letter, handing it to her. She folded it out with one and read it.
"Dear Mr Longbottom,
We're sorry to notify you that Augusta Longbottom has been taken into hospital as of Wednesday, December 13, 2000. Mrs Longbottom is currently being cared for on the Third Floor of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
Mrs Longbottom contacted the hospital herself after having fallen ill. We have confirmed that she has contracted Scrofungulus, an incredibly contagious disease that is not uncommon with the elderly.
We are trying our best to heal Mrs Longbottom. Please contact us as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Price
St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries"
Fuck. Everyone knew that elderly people rarely recovered from Scrofungulus. Cassie put the letter on the desk and grabbed Neville's other hand again. She wanted to say it would all be okay but she couldn't promise him that.
"I'm so sorry, Nev," she whispered. He nodded and looked down at her, pressing his lips together. She could see that he was trying to hold back his tears. She stood up again and sat down on the seat next to him, opening up her arms for him. He accepted her invitation and embraced her tightly. She rubbed his back with one hand and played with his hair with the other.
It took a few seconds but eventually, his shoulders started shaking and muffled sobs were heard. She could feel his tears make her clothes wet but she didn't care. She just wanted to comfort him as best as she could.
"We'll write them right now, yes? And I will talk to Minerva and arrange that you can go to visit your grandmother first thing tomorrow morning. Sprout will take over your classes or I will, I don't care. We'll make sure you can see her right away, yes?" she told him. He held her tighter.
"I can even come if you need me to. I don't mind. I know how it goes, visiting someone with Scrofungulus. My sister had it when I was four, she was seven. They give you these special suits that will protect you from contracting it, it's all safe, you can visit her," she whispered. He sobbed into her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, Neville," she whispered again before pressing a kiss on the top of his head. She couldn't imagine what it felt like for him. She had lost both her grandmothers when she was five years old and she was never close to them. Mrs Longbottom had raised Neville.
He had told Cassie a lot about her. About how she used to think he was a Squib, how judgemental and harsh she could be, how she had incredibly high standards for him. But also about how she baked him biscuits every Sunday, how she fought with him in the war, how strong and passionate she was, how she made him feel safe. He loved her a lot and he knew that she loved him too.
Losing her would absolutely break him. He already had no parents, well, he had parents, but he couldn't communicate with them. He was already crying so hard now and Mrs Longbottom hadn't even passed yet. She wasn't sure what to do.
Whenever she was sad as a child, her mother would sing to her. So that's what she did, she started singing the first song that popped into her mind. "For you, there'll be no more crying. For you, the sun will be shining. And I feel that when I'm with you, it's alright, I know it's right. To you, I'll give the world. To you, I'll never be cold. 'Cause I feel that when I'm with you, it's alright, I know it's right. And the songbirds are singing. Like they know the score..."
He lifted his head off her shoulder and looked at her. His cheeks were stained in tears, his eyes were watery and his nose was puffy and red. But he was smiling again. It was a small smile but it was enough to make her smile back.
"Gran loves Fleetwood Mac. It's the only Muggle band she listens to. She will never confess that she does but I know she loves them. She listens to them daily," he told her. She wiped his tears with the sleeve of her jumper.
"Everybody loves Fleetwood Mac," she smiled back. He nodded and took another deep breath.
"I guess- I guess I just didn't see it coming," he said, looking down. She nodded, knowing what he meant. "I know she's old. Really old. I know she won't be around forever but I didn't expect this to happen either." She took his hand again and gave it a soft squeeze.
"I know," she whispered. "I'm sorry."
"I just hope she's not in too much pain," he whispered back. She nodded.
"The Healers at St Mungo's are really good. Amanda said that it only tickles a bit, especially after the pain medicine they give you. It's not too bad, she won't be in much pain, perhaps no pain at all," she tried.
"If I lose her... If I lose her I have lost everyone," he said, a tear slipping down his cheek once more. "My parents are alive but I can't say their faith is better than death. I don't have any siblings, cousins, nothing. No aunts, uncles, anything like that. Gran has a sister but she's a hermit."
"You have me, yeah? You will always have me, okay?" she said. She knew that it wasn't the same and she knew that it probably wasn't enough but it's all she could think of. "I know it's not the same and I know I might not be the best choice but you do still have me. I will support you through this, okay? You're not alone. You never will be." He looked up at her and nodded again.
"Can you sing again?" he asked softly, snuggling his head against the crook of her neck. She smiled a little and wrapped her arms around him tightly. "Any Fleetwood Mac song will do," he whispered. She chuckled softly and nodded.
"Of course it will. Everybody loves Fleetwood Mac," she whispered back and pressed a kiss on his forehead. "Right then. I took my love, I took it down..."
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A quick update but I was in the mood to upload this sooo here you go :)