Cassandra

Cassandra


Sorry that I’ve taken so long to update. Hope you enjoy.

Author’s note: I own nothing in the Harry Potter universe, except Cassie and a desire to visit there.

Chapter Six – Charms Corridor

Ron was reaching for a pitcher of pumpkin juice as Cassie and George joined the group at the breakfast table. Harry was sitting a little apart from his friends, Cassie noticed, but Ron and Hermione appeared to be deep in the middle of a conversation.

“Anything, but spiders would have been okay.” Ron was referring to their first lesson with Professor Moody. “Why couldn’t he pick something like crickets, or millipedes for instance. They have a multitude of legs, if that’s what he was looking for.”

Cassie joined the table, sitting in the empty spot between Lee and Harry. George approached on the opposite side of the table whacking Ron in the back of his head with his back pack as he passed by. George took the empty seat across from Cassie.

“Ahhh. Spiders again, is it?” said George.

“George and I turned Ron’s teddy into a giant hairy spider at the apparently very impressionable age of five. He’s never recovered,” explained Fred.

“Really?” questioned Cassie, glancing across the table at George.

“Well, you had to have known Ron at the time. He was a great prat, even at five,” George explained, but he had the good grace to look slightly abashed as he said it.

“Well, I’m sure he was,” conceded Cassie. “I’ m just impressed that you were able to accomplish such a major piece of transfiguration like that at such a young age. That would suggest quite a bit of talent.” She bit into her toast as she continued. “That’s probably why your mum was so incensed about your dismal showing of O.W.L.s. She knows what great potential and talent the two of you have.”

She paused in her chewing as she noticed George studying her intently. “What?” she questioned.

“How did you know that mum was in a tizzy about our O.W.L.s? We haven’t mentioned it?” George glanced at Ron, who shook his head vehemently and slid sideways away from the trio.

“First the comment about me not writing to you and now you know about the O.W.L.s.” George watched her closely. “You’ve had some visions you haven’t told me about.”

Cassie noticed he said, ‘me’, not ‘us’.

George put down his fork. “Friends don’t keep secrets, Cassie.”

“Now, what good would it have done to have told you either of those things? You couldn’t change your OWL results.” She finished her toast and poured more juice, splashing a bit on to the table.

“That’s not the point,” George said, flicking some of the spilled juice in her direction. “The point is that we don’t keep secrets.”

“Secrets can be good sometime,” she grinned at him, remembering the bare-chested vision she’d had of him the previous evening.

George rose and grabbed his backpack, knocking Ron into his plate again. “Come on,” he smiled. “I’ll walk you to class. We need to discuss this further.”

Cassie met him at the far end of the table. George linked fingertips with her and waited while she sorted through the scene that flashed before her. He raised his eyebrows in question and Cassie noticed with relief how much easier it was to convey her vision to him without the burden of spoken words.

“A dungeon, Snape’s, your class, but it’s chaotic. Melting cauldrons, a fog of vapors, several students splashed by a potion – they’re covered in boils.”

“Excellent,” said George as they started up the staircase that led to the Charms corridor. “Nice to know I haven’t lost my touch.”

“Now, wait,” protested Cassie, making sure that she kept a firm grip on his fingers. “This means you were present, not that you caused the events. It could have been a complete accident. Someone might have brewed their potion incorrectly.”

George waved off her protests with his other hand as they topped the staircase and started down the hallway.

“I’m beginning to feel that I’m escorting you down the path of miscreant behavior. Instead of me foretelling your future, I’m leading you to it.”

“You can’t take all the credit, Cassie, lass. I already had that idea from listening to Percy wax on and on this summer about the dangers of thin-bottomed cauldrons, so don’t be trying to grab all of the glory,” he grinned at her. “I’ve just been trying to decide when that little experiment might be used to my best advantage.”

With the Charms doorway looming ahead, George stopped short and pulled Cassie into a deserted alcove. Before she realized it, his lips were warm on hers. Their lips parted and tongues met in silent exploration. His pushed more urgently against hers. Since they had maintained skin to skin contact since leaving the Great Hall, Cassie had no annoying visions distracting her. She could concentrate on the feel of George against her. She raised her free hand to his chest, and felt the hardness of the muscles that she’d seen in her vision the night before.

George lowered his hand to her waist, his thumb just slightly below her breast. Cassie wanted to moan, but decided the best thing to do might be to come up for air. She opened her eyes, looking into George’s, bright with excitement.

Resisting the urge to lean forward into his embrace again, Cassie whispered, “I’ve got to go, Professor Flitwick is waiting.”

“Look for me at lunch,” George said, silently, just before she broke contact with him.

But, Cassie knew she couldn’t. She had an occulemency lesson in the afternoon with Snape. She would need all of her lunchtime to prepare herself. With her emotions this close to the surface, Snape would pick up every image of her encounter with George. And this was a subject that she did not want to share with Snape.

One day she would have to tell Snape that she could read George’s mind, (and he could read hers!) This just might be the key that could help her unlock and control her talent.

But today was not the day that she wished to discuss it.