Cassie ended practice 15 minutes later than normal and by the time the team had changed and cleaned up it was already 5:40. Dinner was 20 minutes away and Cassie knew James would be waiting for her. It was their new thing, waiting for each other. Alfie didn't appreciate quidditch as much as Cassie and James so he could care less how their practices went. Fred had other friends to attend to, or so he claimed whenever the two would begin their rants on running a whole quidditch team. Leaving James and Cassie to walk with each other alone.
"Hey Cassie!" Blaise called after her before she could go very far.
"Oh, hey Blaise." She smiled kindly at him and waited for him to catch up to her. Blaise fell into step beside her.
"Walk to the castle with me?" Cassie knew James would be waiting somewhere nearby for her, but she did want to talk with Blaise.
"Actually I already have a walking buddy, but maybe you could join us?" She invited and crossed her fingers behind her back. Blaise agreed to amicably, causing a grin to overtake Cassie's face.
"So any clue who pranked the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs? It was humorous I'll admit." Meg winked.
"No clue." Was her response. The two chatted and started back to the castle. Cassie glanced around for James, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Cassie, I was wonderi-" Blaise had started to ask a question. Cassie hoped she knew what that question was, she hoped that the question was going to make her incredibly happy. Unfortunately before she could discover the nature of the inquiry, another voice interrupted.
"Cassie! You walked straight past me and I didn't even notice, saw the back of your head and reali-" James was jogging up beside them. His voice and manner changed quickly from friendly to disgusted. "Oh, Zabini."
He viewed Blaise with the look someone gives a piece of gum stuck to their shoe.
"Potter." Blaise peered at James from over his nose self-importantly.
"Blaise this is my walking partner." Cassie laughed nervously noticing the two boys' instant animosity towards each other. Blaise glanced at James once more before yanking the entrance door open, holding it for Cassie.
"I'll see you around Cassie." He winked and made off. Cassie glanced back at James who'd just managed to catch the door before it smacked him in the face.
"You have the worse timing!" Cassie exclaimed, not exactly angry, but definitely exasperated.
"Sorry?" James' question was ignored as Cassie huffed and looped her arm through his.
"I'm starved, practice was grueling." The two chatted quidditch and nothing but all the way to dinner and through most of dinner as well. That is until Alfie let out a loud strangled noise from his throat and claimed;
"There is such thing as too much quidditch and you two passed it around twenty minutes ago."
James had awoken still buzzed with happiness from yesterdays pranking success and his long chat on quidditch with Cassie. Quidditch always left James in a better mood. Thursdays were rather boring and it was going normally as ever for James. The spells on Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had worn off, breakfast and divination were boring and Free Period was full of lounging around and pretending to work. At the end of free period, he'd walked down to wait for Cassie at her classroom and together they and Alfie bagan traipsing to potions.
"Hey Cassie." Zabini called out loudly, waving his hand at her. Cassie tittered shyly and wiggled her fingers back at him. This shocked both James and Alfie, considering Cassie was not a shy girl and she didn't titter. Zabini was striding over to the group smoothly. He ignored both James and Alfie with a sort of vengeance. James supposed that it was better than the staring match they'd had the afternoon before.
"Hey Blaise, what's up?' She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and fluttered her eyelashes slightly. James eyebrows rose in surprise, he exchanged a look with Alfie who appeared just as baffled.
"Chris got detention this Saturday and can't go to Hogsmeade, so it looks as if I'll be going alone." Zabini sighed, mock sadly. James and Alfie frowned, and wondered why Zabini thought that Cassie would care about his Hogsmeade plans.
"What a shame." The smile pulling at Cassie's lips suggested she didn't really believe it was such a shame at all.
"Unless," Zabini spoke slowly as if the idea had just come to him. "perhaps you're free and want to go with me?" At this suggestion James and Cassie had two very different reactions. A huge scowl split James face and he was ready to tell Zabini exactly what he could do on his Hogsmeade weekend. Cassie's voice beat James' though.
"It's funny you ask, my plans were just cancelled and I was looking for someone to fill them." Cassie bit her lip and tucked another curl behind her ear.
"Perfect. See you at nine thirty then?" Zabini grinned with satisfaction.
"In front of the Great Hall." Cassie confirmed with a wink, Zabini swaggered off to Potions ahead of them.
"I thought you were coming to Zonkos with us!" James voice was outraged and he attempted clearing it, hoping neither of his friends would notice. Judging by the snigering coming from Alfie, that was unlikely. James couldn't help it though, he and Cassie had been becoming good friends and he felt jealous to have to share her already.
"I'll meet up with you after the date." Cassie shrugged it off. James glared at the floor and shuffled his feet forward. The three made their way to potions.
"What time will that be?" James muttered moodily.
How about one, I'll meet you in The Three Broomsticks and we can go to Zonkos after?" James perked up slightly at the mention of Zonkos, but still had a small pout on his face when he finally gave consent to the plan. Cassie shared a grin with Alfie, it was no secret how possessive James got over his friends and definitely an understatement to say he disliked Blaise Zabini II.
"Awe. Jamie don't be jealous, you're still my number one guy." Cassie leaned forward and kissed James' cheek before skipping into the potions classroom. James strutted in happier now, he was Cassie's number one guy. Maybe it was only as a friend, but he was better than Zabini. It didn't even matter that she'd been half-joking when she'd said it.
"Good morning Professor!" Cassie sang before taking her seat. Zabini, who'd gotten to class a few moments earlier turned and winked at Cassie.
"Good morning Miss Malfoy." Professor Boot rolled his eyes at his cheery student, but managed a smile all the same. Professor Boot was a kind, but stern teacher. He'd always been rather good at potions when he'd gone to school and he'd found he was even better at teaching the subject. Cassie was one of his favorite students, being one of the few that brought sunshine to the classroom with her 100 watt smile. Plus her potion making was adept and she listened to his advice well.
James slid into the seat beside Cassie and glared at Zabini, who was still making eyes at Cassie. Alfie chuckled knowingly at his friend and took the seat behind him and beside Hannah Belby.
"Today we will be making-" James had already tuned Professor Boot out, an impressive feat as he'd barely said five words to the class. James didn't care much about how mincing leaves was better than crushing them or any other tips that Professor Boot had for them. James was stuck in a pattern of glaring at the back of Zabini's head or gazing at Cassie.
Cassie was diligently scrawling down notes and hanging onto every word the Professor spoke. James should've been reflecting similar actions, but was too distracted by the way Cassie pushed her blonde curls out of her heart shaped face. He was too distracted by the way Cassie's eyes were entirely focused on the lesson, lighting up in understanding. Or by Cassie's hand with long fingers, that wrote smoothly. Or by her handwriting itself, unfurling across her parchment in neat loops, the letters n, m and e curling with extra flourishes. James found it rather endearing, really.
A cough from behind James interrupted his peaceful thoughts, a glance behind him revealed it wasn't a cough at all. It was a snigger. A snigger coming from James' so called best friend. Alfie sat smirking at James pointedly, he chucked a piece of crumpled parchment at James' face. surprising James as Alfie did not pass notes in class. James caught it before it could smack him in the nose. He turned back to face the front, while unfolding it.
'You've got drool on your chin'
James turned to glare at Alfie and chucked the note back at him. Alfie had begun sniggering again as James attempted to inconspicuously wipe at his chin with his robe sleeve.
"Potter?" James heard his name echo throughout the classroom in a question. He glanced up and noticed Professor Boot looking at him expectantly. It was obvious the Professor hadn't noticed James lack of attention to the lesson, or perhaps he did notice and this was his way of reprimanding him. Either way James had no idea what Professor Boot's inquiry had been and since he hadn't paid any attention to the whole lesson he couldn't make something up that would be close enough.
"Wormwood." Meg's soft whisper brought relief to James.
"Uh, Wormwood. Professor." James called out loudly. Professor Boot nodded happily, satisfied with the correct answer.
"Very good Mr. Potter, five points to Gryffindor." He turned around and continued his short lecture. James still was tuning him out, despite being put on the spot a mere six seconds ago.
'Thank you.' He mouthed to Cassie, she simply smiled and shook her head fondly in response. James felt his temper about Zabini slowly slip away with that little smile. Honestly, no one could stay mad at Cassie when she had those perfect teeth, surrounded by pink, pink lips and her bright, bright blue eyes.
"Alright you can get started now. It's a quick potion so you should have plenty of time. Work with the person next to you to speed up the process." James glanced at the clock and saw that only ten minutes had gone by, they still had thirty-five before the bell rung. James almost groaned, but was stopped by Cassie speaking.
" I'm guessing you have no clue what we're doing, so I'll get materials. Flip to page 347 in our books." She gracefully stood and trailed over to the supplies closet. James opened his textbook to page 347 just as he'd been told to do. He shoved the book to the front, center of his and Cassie's connected desk. Cassie returned with the ingredients and began giving James orders, divvying up the work.
They poured over the textbook together, James only leaning in when she did, after all he didn't need to read the directions when Cassie kept giving him step-by-step instructions. Besides instructions, Cassie gave James different tricks to making the potion more potent. James couldn't say he cared much about the potions aspect and learning, but he quite enjoyed when Cassie would lean over and take his hands in her own.
"No do it more like this. There you go!" Cassie guided his rough hands with her soft ones, chopping the pixie leafs into diamonds rather than rectangles. James would mess it up when Cassie let his hands go on purpose, just so her long smooth fingers would clasps his again. He got the large satisfaction of seeing Zabini glance toward them every so often and glare at James. The whole reason James continued to mess up was to anger Zabini.
Cassie shook her head at him. "Are you messing up on purpose?" Her voice was a squawk of indignation and suspicion. James shrugged.
"Oops?" He suggested with a grin. Cassie jokingly glared at him.
"You're wasting valuable time, do it yourself." James snickered until Cassie hit him upside the head with her hand. "Smart arse." She muttered to him.
"Oops." He offered again, earning himself another smack upside the head.