THOSE THREE WORDS
"Have you guys noticed that there might be something weird going on with Cassiopeia?" asked Hermione, frowning as she sat next to Ron who was trying to understand his Charms homework.
Harry sat on his favourite armchair, flicking through the pages of his potions book which contained loads of scribbles from the "half-blood prince".
He shut his book and placed it on his lap, not wanting to put it anywhere that anyone would find. He looked up, his eyebrows creasing.
"What ever do you mean?" asked Harry.
"I... I don't know," Hermione pursed her lips. "Well, I mean a few days ago I saw her at the restricted section of the library. And then she skips breakfast and lunch! Not only that, but she also hangs out with her brother a lot."
"Yeah it's quite odd," shrugged Ron. "I'm sure it's nothing anyway, I mean, she could just be busy with homework since NEWTS is coming up."
"It's only the first week of school!" exclaimed Hermione.
"What was she doing in the restricted section?" frowned Harry.
"She said she was being asked questions by Snape during her detention with him, she didn't want to look dumb, so she wanted to look through there." answered Hermione.
Harry couldn't disagree. Ever since what happened last year, Cassiopeia seemed to be busy with something. She always seemed to have something in her mind that she's thinking of. He also noticed that during dinner, she would always sit next to her brother, which was unusual because she hates him.
"I'm sure it's nothing," said Harry, leaning back on his chair.
"Are you sure?" the bushy haired girl lifted a brow.
"Positive," he answered.
°°°
Cassiopeia groaned as she threw the letter that Borgin sent to her in front of Draco who had his sleeves rolled up, with an open book in hand as he stood in front of the vanishing cabinet.
"What's that?" He asked.
"Borgin said he sold the damn necklace!" She shouted, "what do we do now?!"
"What else do you have in mind? I told you that it was a rubbish idea!"
"I'll tell him to get it from the person who bought it, and I'm going to tell Greyback to pay Borgin a little visit." The girl angrily grabbed another piece of parchment.
"Sure, then." Draco rolled his eyes.
Even though It's only been a few days, they still have not made any improvements on the cabinet. At all. Not even a single change. It was getting stressful for Cassiopeia, going back and forth to the library.
She also had to plan out how she was going to get Dumbledore to hold the opal necklace. And how to get it to him.
"Can we have a break?" asked Draco, letting out a sigh. "Cass we haven't slept since yesterday, and we haven't done anything to that stupid cabinet!"
"What did you expect?" barked Cassiopeia, "for that to be fixed in under twelve hours?"
"Whatever, I'm going to bed." He grabbed his black robes and bags before storming out of the room.
Cassiopeia scowled before sitting down and rubbing her eyes, annoyed. She looked at the cabinet, biting the insides of her lips.
That thing will make her entire year a living hell.
A few hours later, she still hadn't slept. She decided she didn't want to deal with the cabinet right now since it was a huge blockage in her brain. She tried to do something else in the room of requirements, but her mind was still filled with worries. If she skipped this one day, would they be delayed? Would they end up getting killed because she missed one day?!
'Stop it, you're being stupid,' she tried to convince herself. And she ended up doing her homework in front of the cabinet just in case some idea might pop up in her head. She still hasn't done her transfiguration homework, her charms homework, and her potions homework.
NEWTS are coming up, but that was the last thing she worried about.
°°°
She walked out of the room of requirement, realizing it was now dark. Heavy rain poured as she walked up the marble staircase and up to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Password?" asked the fat lady.
That's the thing, she didn't know the password. She muttered curse words before telling the fat lady random passwords. The portrait looked at the girl an eyebrow raised, and a small smile on her face.
"I swear to god, I'll pick you up and throw you down the bloody stairs, you fat little--"
"Cassiopeia?"
Cassiopeia whirled around, her face red from anger. It softened when she realized she was facing Neville Longbottom.
"Oh, Neville. Hello," she gave him an innocent smile.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Fine! Never better," she answered quickly.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I need to talk to Harry about something, and if you don't mind..." Cassiopeia gestured towards the portrait who lifted a brow at the girl.
"Not at all," smiled Neville.
"Thank you," she lets out a relieved smile. The portrait opened as Neville said the password. Their Common Room was empty, not a single person awake.
It was quite odd for Neville to be out so late.
"What're you doing outside at this time?" asked Cassiopeia, looking around the Gryffindor common room. It was all red, the fire was on, and it seemed really cozy, but it was not as big as the Slytherin Common Room.
Cassiopeia could swear she saw Neville blush, "nothing...umm, I was hanging out with a friend."
"Sure you were," Cassiopeia winked.
"I'll go see if Harry's still up!" He quickly said, walking up the stairs as fast as he could, obviously avoiding the topic of their conversation.
Cassiopeia shook her head, chuckling. As the sound of Neville's footsteps faded away, she looked around. The common room was a bit messy, books lie on every table, students not putting it back in their bookshelf. Candles were burning, some already melted.
As she looked around, Cassiopeia could hear footsteps again. Turning, she saw Harry walking down, wearing his pajamas and his hair was even messier (if that could be possible) than always.
"Cass?" He frowned as Cassiopeia placed down the book she hadn't realize she picked up, "what're you doing in here?"
"I came to apologise," she replied, biting her lip.
"For what?" questioned Harry, looking utterly confused.
"For not going to your tryouts?" Cassiopeia answered, she lifted a brow. "Are you not angry with me?"
"No, I was never angry with you." Harry chuckled. He made his way to the couch, he sat down and motioned for the girl to sit down next to him.
"What?" She scoffed, sitting down next to the boy. "You haven't spoken a word to me ever since!"
"I just haven't seen you, you've been disappearing!"
"Right," she grimaced. "I've been really busy with homework, and you know, detention with Snape and all..."
"I understand."
Cassiopeia lets out a relieved sigh, resting her back on the couch. "Thank merlin, I don't want to go through apologising to anyone ever again."
Harry chuckled, Cassiopeia rolled her eyes. There were a few moments of silence, Cassiopeia cleared her throat and stood up.
"Well then, I uhh, I'll get going..." she said, as she was about to take a step, Harry grabbed her wrist, stopping her.
"No, stay." He said, pulling Cassiopeia down on the couch again. She lets out a snort, giving him a look.
"Are you mad? Filch literally stays in the dungeons waiting for students to get out after curfew." She pursed her lips, "he'll cut off my head."
"We'll find a way," he brushed off. "What do you think of our common room? It's better than yours isn't it?"
Cassiopeia laughed, "excuse me? Ours are never as messy as this. We don't leave our book lying about."
The girl spotted their potions textbook, and she turned to Harry. "And you got lucky last time in potions by the way. You're never that good." She said, jokingly.
"How dare you," he scoffed. "I was always good at Potions, you know."
"That is a lie, Potter. You were NEVER good at Potions. Ever." Cassiopeia laughed.
"Now we've got a better teacher, I probably will be." He smirked.
"Sure, sure. I'd like to see you try," she challenged.
He chuckled. Cassiopeia moved closer to him, and there was a moment of silence. Not an awkward one, but a comfortable one. A question then popped up in her mind.
"What are you planning to take when we leave Hogwarts?" She asked, frowning.
"An Auror perhaps," said Harry. "You?"
She paused, "I haven't really thought of it. Probably Minister for Magic. It'd be cool, I could shove it to my brother and fathers face when I become one."
She indeed wanted to be one. Well, not her, but her father. It was either one of them, Draco or Cassiopeia. But the girl really does think it would be a really cool career.
"Do you want that?" asked Harry.
"Yes, it could be nice..." Cassiopeia pondered. "Or a teacher here at Hogwarts."
"What subject would you teach?" Harry grinned.
"I could do a better job than Trelawney that's for sure." She laughed.
It was either become the Minister for Magic or a Hogwarts teacher. One of them would make her father proud, while the other would make him really disappointed.
Harry nodded, "I'm sure you will..."
"You'd make an amazing Auror," Cassiopeia moved her face closer to his.
"I hope so..."
"I know so," she winked, pecking his lips before standing up. "Grab your Invisibility cloak, walk me back to my common room, be a good boyfriend will you?"
Harry rolled his eyes, though a smile played on his lips. He stood up and shook his head, "whatever you say..."
Cassiopeia grinned as Harry walked up to get his cloak.
She waited for a minute or two, and Harry walked down with his cloak in his hands. She hoped it would be big enough for the both of them to fit since Cassiopeia is a bit taller than Harry.
Harry placed the cloak over them, they walked out of the common room, not saying a word just in case any portraits would snitch on them.
Cassiopeia tried her best not to step on Harry's feet, but the boy wasn't bothering to try. He had at least stepped on her foot twice, earning a hiss of pain from Cassiopeia and a painful nudge.
The girl looked around, the hallway was empty, the moon cannot be seen because it was still raining heavily.
"Ouch Harry, my foot!" She hissed.
"Sorry!" He bit his lips, his hands travelled to her waist to make it easier for them, making Cassiopeia blush uncontrollably.
They almost reached the dungeons, when they heard a meow. Not expecting it, Cassiopeia jumped, her elbow knocking over the armour. It fell on the ground with a very loud thud.
Harry faced palmed himself as Cassiopeia's eyes widened with fear.
"It's fine, Filch isn't even here---" but Cassiopeia was cut off.
"WHO GOES THERE?!" yelled the voice of Filch, Cassiopeia and Harry both looked at each other before making the run for it. They could hear Filch running after them. Harry looked at their feet, checking to see if they can be seen or not.
They both stopped behind a wall, they could hear Filch still running, his lamp shining closer and closer.
"Show yourselves!" He growled, "if I see ya, you'll be sorry!"
Cassiopeia's breathing was heavy, and Filch came closer, his eyes looking around. For a moment his eyes landed on them, and Harry placed a hand over Cassiopeia's mouth to keep her from breathing too loud.
Filch narrowed his eyes and ran to the other side of the halls. Cassiopeia and Harry then pelted to the dungeons.
When Filch was finally out of earshot, they laughed loudly. It was stressful.
"You sure you'll be fine going back?" asked Cassiopeia wiping the tears from her eyes as they stood in front of the gargoyle, Invisibility Cloak off.
"Promise," chuckled Harry.
Cassiopeia lets out a breath. "All right. Goodnight, Harry."
"Goodnight," he smiled.
They looked at each other, both smiling happily. And Cassiopeia didn't know why, it just slipped out of hier mouth. She didn't think twice.
"I love you," she said.
Harry blinked, his smile growing. "I love you too."
Cassiopeia kissed his lips before waving goodbye. As she walked inside her common room, she bit her lips, trying to stop herself from smiling widely.