Cassi started to get worried about Harry, he didn't seem to be eating properly. Determined to find her friend, she brought honey cakes with her.
Harry looked sullen, sitting alone in a corner.
"Hey, boy with the lightning scar," Cassi called with a playful smile.
Harry looked at her and gave a slight smile.
"I brought these for you, want to take a walk?" Cassi asked as she extended three slices of cake that were on a small silver plate.
"Good idea," replied Harry gratefully.
Hermione appeared behind Cassi, holding toast in a napkin.
"Hey, brought this for you," she said, extending it to Harry, who now had his hands full.
Cassi let out a little laugh. "Seems like we were thinking the same thing."
"Tell me something new," Hermione sighed and chuckled.
"We were going for a walk, want to come?" Cassi called, and the three of them started walking.
They hurried through the entrance hall, not looking at the Great Hall. Soon, they were walking through the gardens towards the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was anchored, reflecting darkly in the water.
It was a cold morning, and the three friends kept walking, eating the toast and cakes, while Harry told the girls exactly what had happened after he left the Gryffindor table the previous night.
Harry seemed greatly relieved when Cassiopeia and Hermione accepted his story without doubt.
"Well, of course I knew you didn't enter yourself," Hermione said when he finished telling them about the scene in the chamber next to the Great Hall.
"The look on your face when Dumbledore called your name!" Cassi exclaimed. "Oh, and Harry, Sirius needs to know about this. Someone is deliberately trying to put you in danger."
Hermione nodded in agreement.
"But the question is, who entered you? Because Moody is right, Harry. I don't think any student would have been able to do it... never would have been able to fool the Goblet of Fire or override Dumbledore's spell..." Hermione asked anxiously.
"Did you see Ron?" Harry interrupted.
Hermione hesitated.
"Um... I did... he was having breakfast," she said, nervously fidgeting her fingers.
"Does he still think I entered myself?" Harry asked, shrugging.
"Well... no, I don't think so... not really," she said awkwardly.
"What do you mean by 'not really'?" Harry questioned.
"Oh, Harry, isn't it obvious?" Hermione replied desperately. "He's jealous!"
"Jealous?" the boy repeated in disbelief."Jealous of what? Does he want to make a fool of himself in front of the whole school?" Harry seemed exasperated.
"Harry, listen to me," Hermione pleaded patiently.
"I know you don't want this... but, well... you know, Ron has all those siblings competing at home, and you're his best friend and you're really famous. Ron is always left behind when people see you, and he puts up with it without complaining, but I think this time it was too much..." Hermione quickly explained.
"Great," said Harry bitterly."Really great. Tell him I'll switch places with him whenever he wants. Tell him my spot is up for grabs... people gaping at my scar everywhere I go."
"She won't say anything!" Cassi intervened. "Tell him yourself, that's the only way to resolve this."
"I'm not going to chase after him to make him grow up!" said Harry, so loudly that several owls perched on a nearby tree took flight in alarm. "Maybe he believes I'm not having fun when my neck is about to be snapped or..."
Cassiopeia prevented him from speaking by giving him such a strong ear pull that Harry had tears in his eyes.
"Don't you dare say such nonsense! You didn't die from the Killing Curse, so now is not the time to rest that trouble-making ass of yours," Cassi said with an annoyed huff.
When Harry seemed calmer, Hermione spoke again.
"Harry, as we were saying... you know what you need to do, don't you? Hurry, as soon as we get back to the castle."
"I know, give Ron a good kick in the as-"
"Write to Sirius! You have to tell him what happened. He asked you to keep him informed about everything happening at Hogwarts... It's almost like he expected something like this to happen," Hermione sighed. "I brought parchment and a quill with me..."
"Cut it out!" Harry exclaimed, looking around to check if anyone was listening; but the gardens were too deserted.
"He came back to the country just because my scar hurt. He would probably storm into the castle in a rage if I told him that someone entered me into the Triwizard Tournament..." Harry complained.
"If you don't tell him, I will, Harry," Cassi said harshly. "Believe me, you don't want to see an angry Black." Cassi gave her best imitation of her grandmother's stern look.
Harry visibly shuddered, and Cassiopeia made a mental note to use Walburga's look more often.
"OK, OK, I'll write," said Harry, throwing the last piece of toast into the lake. The three of them stood there watching the bread float for a moment before a large tentacle emerged and swallowed it from below.
After that, they returned to the castle.
"Whose owl should I use?" Harry asked, when they stopped on the first floor. "He told me not to use Hedwig again."
"Use the castle's owl," Cassi simply said.
Hermione gave Harry a piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell, then sat down with Cassi, while Harry leaned against the wall and wrote the letter.
⁀➷
That afternoon, when Cassi entered the Slytherin common room, Pansy came excitedly to her, offering a badge.
"Support Cedric Diggory - the REAL champion of Hogwarts," it read. But then Pansy pressed it against her chest and soon a green light illuminated and appeared: "Potter stinks."
"Who came up with this idea?" Cassi asked, a mix of annoyance and pride for the ingenuity of it.
"Draco asked, and we're all organizing to distribute it," Pansy smiled maliciously. "I know he's your friend and blah blah blah, but do you want one?" she asked hopefully.
Cassi laughed. "As much as I admit the ingenuity... I can't do that to a friend," she gently concluded. "But the badge suits your eyes." Cassi kissed Pansy's cheek and left the common room.
She arrived in the courtyard just in time to see a group of Slytherins rolling with laughter. Each of them pinned on a badge just like the one Pansy had shown, until the message "Potter stinks" was shining brightly around Harry, who was growing redder by the moment.
"Oh, how hilarious," Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy and a group of girls who were laughing uncontrollably.
Honestly, the thing is ingenious, but not funny to that extent, Cassi thought with an eye roll. She noticed the teasing from her fellow Slytherins towards Harry. Cassi even tried to intervene, which, thanks to Merlin, worked at least in parts. They weren't disturbing Harry in any class, too afraid of Cassi's threats.
No Slytherin student dared to question Cassiopeia since her first year at Hogwarts, something related to her title of Princess of Slytherin, or something like that. Well, everyone except Draco, but that's because he knows she loves him too much.
"Want one, Granger?" Draco asked, offering a badge to Hermione.
"I have a bunch of them, but don't touch my hand right now, I just washed it, you know, and I don't want a mudblood to dirty it," maybe Cassi doesn't love him that much now.
"DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY!" She said in a shrill voice that could compete with her grandmother's, and Draco's smile quickly disappeared.
Before Cassi could say anything, Harry pointed his wand at Draco.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted as a warning.
Cassi barely had time to blink.
"Go on, Potter, use it," Draco taunted, pulling out his own wand.
They stared into each other's eyes, then, at the exact same time, they acted.
"Furnunculus!" Harry shouted. "Densaugeo!" Draco shouted.
Beams of light shot out from each wand, collided in mid-air, and ricocheted at an angle. Harry's spell hit Goyle in the face, and Draco's hit Hermione.
Goyle screamed and clutched his nose, where large and ugly boils began to sprout. The girl, crying in pain, covered her mouth.
"Mione!" Cassi rushed to the fallen girl in pain. Shortly after, Ron appeared out of nowhere.
"Mione!" Ron came running alongside Cassiopeia to see what had happened.
Harry turned around in shock and saw Cassi gently removing Hermione's hand from her face to assess the damage. It wasn't a pleasant sight.
Hermione's front teeth began to grow, now at an alarming rate. With each passing minute, the girl looked more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, surpassing her lower lip and reaching toward her chin. In a panic, she touched them and let out a terrified scream.
"Shh, it'll be okay, Mione," Cassi reassured her as she helped her up.
"And what's all this commotion?" a soft yet lethal voice asked. Snape arrived.
The Slytherin students shouted, trying to give explanations. Snape pointed a long finger at Draco and said, "Explain."
"Potter attacked me, professor..." Draco pretended to look sad.
"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry yelled.
"...and he hit Goyle, look..." Draco pointed his finger at Goyle, who had ugly boils on his nose.
Snape looked at Goyle.
"Hospital wing, Goyle," the professor said calmly.
"Malfoy hit Hermione!" Ron said. "Look!" Ron practically pushed Cassi aside and forced Hermione to show her teeth to Snape.
She tried her best to hide them with her hands, although it was difficult because they had now exceeded her neckline.
Pansy and the other Slytherin girls burst into silent laughter. Cassiopeia only gave them a look, and the laughter abruptly stopped. Pansy swallowed hard.
Snape coldly looked at Hermione and said, "I see no difference."
Hermione let out a cry, her eyes filled with tears, she turned around and ran, ran down the corridor and disappeared.
Cassi angrily glared at Snape before running after Hermione, not caring about the boys.
"Mione, Mione, wait!" Cassi shouted as she ran after the girl.
"Finally!" Cassi took a deep breath to catch her breath when she caught up to Hermione. "Look at me," Cassi pleaded, lifting her friend's face and assessing the damage.
"Don't look like that, those tears ruin your beautiful face," Cassi said softly, wiping Hermione's tears away. "Come on, let's go to Madame Pomfrey." Cassiopeia dragged Hermione to the hospital wing, and as soon as Madame Pomfrey saw them, she dropped a tray she was carrying in astonishment at Hermione's condition.
"Malfoy and Potter being idiots," she replied to the woman's silent question.
Madame Pomfrey asked Hermione to sit down and handed her a mirror.
"Let me know when you return to normal size," she explained and cast a Shrinking Charm.
Hermione may have waited a little longer after her teeth returned to their normal size. But Cassiopeia didn't dare comment, knowing that her friend was being bullied because of her teeth.
"Well, they look great," Cassi smiled at Hermione, helping her off the bed.
The Gryffindor looked radiant with her new smile.
"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey."
"You're welcome, dear," the woman replied, apologizing and going to tend to the eruptions on Goyle's nose.