Memories of Them

Sunday went by in the blink of an eye. Cassie and her friends had spent the day with their new Gryffindor friends in the common room chatting, laughing and playing games; they had even managed to sneak Fabian and Hugo past the Fat Lady with some help from Lee. Cassie couldn’t believe that this was how school life would be for the next year! 

When Monday morning came around Cassie was up, dressed and ready to go before the sun was up. Grabbing her school bag off the hook on the back of the door she decided to head downstairs to the common room to get some extra reading in before the beginning of classes. The common room was completely empty so she decided to snag the prime spot right next to the roaring fire. Pulling out a quill, ink pot, parchment and her potions book she started making study notes on the draught of living death potion trying to retain as much information as possible. About an hour and a half later and after Cassie had made notes of three chapters worth of her textbook sounds of life began to ring through Gryffindor tower. Groggy students traipsed down the stairs from their dormitories heading for breakfast, a couple of them gave her a small smile and wave as they walked past. It seemed as though the Beauxbatons girls had become honorary Gryffindors. 

After being sat in a hunched position on the floor for close to two hours Cassie decided she needed to stand up to regain some form of blood circulation. Stretching her arms above her head and hearing her spine crack and pop Cassie suddenly let out a blood curdling scream as someone poked her underarms. 

“Godric Cass! Were you trying  to deafen me?” laughed Lee, his hands still covering his ears as people around them shot the pair looks of annoyance. Nobody should be being that loud so early in the morning.

“You scared me!” Cassie whined. 

“Sorry I couldn’t pass up on that opportunity,” he laughed.

Rolling her eyes at the boy, Cassie hastily began to pack her things away, shoving them into her school satchel. 

“Are you heading down to breakfast?” she asked him, eyes flicking around the common room looking for her friends.

“Yep, you want to walk with me?” he asked her, grabbing her bag off the table and slinging it over his shoulder.

“Sure! I was waiting for the girls but they’re taking forever and I’m starving,” she laughed following him out of the portrait hole. 

Their quick walk down to the Great Hall was filled with chatter and laughter. Cassie hoped that she would become great friends with Lee, his relaxed go with the flow attitude combined with his friendly demeanour made her feel welcome. She knew that whenever they were together they would be laughing and having fun, it was no wonder that he was such good friends with the twins. 

“Where are you planning on sitting?” he asked her, pausing in the doorway of the Great Hall. “I’ll be over there with Fred and George if you want to join us? I know you guys have known each other forever,”  he said. 

Cassie was taken aback by that comment, the only people that she had told about her relationship with the Weasley family were her friends. That implied that the twins had been talking about her, probably away from prying ears in their dorm room. The thought made Cassie shudder. 

“That’s alright, I don’t want to intrude,” Cassie said hastily, “I’ve just seen Hermione anyway and wanted to ask her about something I read in my potions book,” she said smiling.

“Look, I know it probably isn’t my place to say anything but if you spoke to the twins I’m sure you guys could work it out. They were really excited to see you again Cassie,” he said. Before she could respond he had turned away and began heading towards the crowd of rowdy sixth year boys. Fred quickly grabbed Lee’s arm, pulling him down to sit next to him, whispering furiously in his ear. Cassie just ignored them, rushing to sit opposite Hermione. 

“Morning Cassie, sorry I would have asked you to join me for breakfast but you looked so engrossed in your studies I didn’t want to disturb you,” Hermione said, peeking at her over the top of her copy of the Daily Prophet. 

“Morning Hermione, I didn’t even see you walk past! I wanted to get myself acquainted with the material before lessons began,” Cassie said blushing slightly at her own nerdiness. 

Hermione looked at her in wonder, “I do that!” she said excitedly, “I hate going into a class and not knowing what is going on,” she continued. 

Cassie chuckled at the younger girl, seeing a lot of herself in her mannerisms. The two began to talk about their subjects- which subjects were their favourites, which subjects they found hardest and which subjects they thought were pointless. They were in a particularly heated discussion about Divination when Harry and Ron showed up, throwing themselves into the seats beside the girls. 

“Morning boys, don’t you look happy this morning,” Cassie laughed.

“Don’t joke Cass, we’ve got bloody double potions on a bloody Monday! I’m seriously considering drowning myself in the black lake,” Ron groaned, loading his plate with a tall stack of toast and nine rashers of bacon.

“What’s so bad about that? I love potions,” Cassie said, picking at the pastry on her plate. 

“Obviously someone hasn’t met Professor Snape yet, he can suck the fun straight out of a room, I’m positive he’s half dementor,” Harry joked, looking equally as downcast as Ron.

“Boys stop it! Cassie should be given the chance to form her own opinions about Snape. He’s incredibly knowledgeable Cass, he can just be a bit strict and tends to favour the students in his own house,” Hermione explained. 

Looking at her timetable Cassie could see that she would have potions with the sixth years that afternoon. 

“Well I’ll let you know at dinner what I think,” Cassie said smiling.

Just then the piece of parchment with her schedule on it was ripped out of her hands. Looking around she found her group of friends all comparing their timetables.

“We’ve all got the same lessons,” Hugo cheered.

“Apart from Cassie who is taking sixth year Potions, Transfiguration, Alchemy and Defence Against the Dark Arts,” Bonnie said. 

“You’re taking NEWT level classes in fifth year?” Hermione asked in awe.

“Our nerd Cassie here is top in the class in all of her subjects, she was supposed to be taking all sixth year classes whilst at Hogwarts but she didn’t want to spend all of her time alone,” laughed Fabian, messing up Cassie’s hair jokily as the girl turned beet red.

“Do you know what House you’ll be taking those classes with?” asked Ron, looking at her timetable, “Just as I expected, Gryffindor. Don’t worry you’ll have Lee and the twins in Potions, Transfiguration and Defense, and I think Alicia takes Alchemy,” he said, trying to sound somewhat reassuring. 

Cassie tried to keep the grimace off of her face at the thought of sharing classes with the twins. At least she would have some friendly faces, she thought, maybe she could convince Lee to sit with her. Grabbing her timetable from Ron’s greasy hands she checked her first lessons, fifth year Charms then sixth year Defence. 

“I can show you where the Charms classroom is if you want?” Hermione asked the group of Beauxbatons students who all nodded their heads at her appreciatively.

Quickly grabbing a handful of grapes and her bookbag, Cassie stood and followed Hermione out of the Great Hall. The corridors were busier than she had ever seen them, students were running in all directions, some trying to grab a quick breakfast, others making their way to their first lesson. Following Hermione up three of the moving staircases and down a couple of corridors she stopped in front of a small door. 

Spreading her arms out with a flourish, Hermione announced “you have arrived!” 

“Thank you Hermione, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to find my way through this maze!” Cassie laughed. 

“You’re welcome! I really must run though, I’ve got to be all the way down in the dungeons in five minutes!” Hermione responded, somewhat frantically running off in the direction they had come from. 

Looking at her friends and giving them a nervous smile, Cassie took a deep breath before knocking on the classroom door. A small squeaky voice sounded from inside the classroom, “Enter!” 

Cassie pushed the heavy wooden door open and stepped into the bright sunlit classroom. The desks were arranged in long lines facing a blackboard at the front of the classroom. Behind the blackboard a wall of bookshelves held all kinds of charms textbooks. Standing in front of the blackboard and enchanting a piece of white chalk to write the date and title was a short bespeckled professor with a well groomed moustache. 

“Hello Professor, I’m Cassandra Vaughn. We are supposed to be joining your fifth year Charms class,” Cassie said politely. 

“Of course! It’s wonderful to meet you all! I’m Professor Flitwick, Charms Professor and Head of Ravenclaw House,” he said proudly. “Today we are learning the Auguamenti charm, I assume you have heard of it?” he asked.

“Yes Professor, we've studied the theory,” Cassie confirmed. 

“Fantastic! Choose a desk and pull out your textbooks, I intend to go over the wand motion before starting the practical part of the lesson,” he said. 

Cassie, Fabian and Bonnie sat in the first row and began pulling out their materials whilst Odette, Libby and Hugo sat directly behind them. Feeling a slight tug on her hair from beside she spun around to see Odette smiling. 

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Where were you this morning? I woke up to use the toilet at 5.30 and your bed was empty,” she said.

Cassie blushed slightly, “I went down to the common room to study, I woke up at 5 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t want to disturb anyone,” Cassie responded. 

“Of course you did,” laughed Odette. 

“But I did get through three chapters of my potions textbook and made notes, hopefully I’ll be able to keep up this afternoon now!” Cassie said. 

Soon the Hogwarts fifth years began to file into the room, all taking their seats and pulling out their Charms work. The whole class was chatting loudly, people were turned around talking to the row behind them, others were playing volleyball with a crumpled up piece of parchment whilst the rest appeared to be finishing off their homework at the very last second. When Professor Flitwick cleared his throat at the front of the class, they all went silent, respectfully turning their attention to the blackboard. 

“The Auguamenti charm allows its caster to produce clean mineral water out of the tip of his or her wand…” Professor Flitwick began. 

Cassie had loved their charms class. They had spent the beginning of the lesson reading a chapter in their textbook about the Auguamenti charm, Professor Flitwick had dispersed snippets of information throughout the chapter to aid their understanding which Cassie scribbled down fiercely onto a piece of parchment. When it came to casting the spell their small group had varying levels of success. Cassie and Odette had managed to cast the spell perfectly on their first attempt, filling the jug in front of them with water. Fabian, Bonnie and Libby had managed to produce a couple of drops of water continuing to try to fill their jugs throughout the lesson. Whilst Hugo produced a rancid smelling concoction that had looked like it had come directly from a swamp, Professor Flitwick had instantly made it vanish before it could stink out the entire classroom. After their hour and a half lesson was up the group had left the classroom laughing at Hugo’s poor attempt at the charm. 

“It’s confirmed, I am failing my OWLs,” Hugo groaned, throwing the group of friends a scowl as they walked down the corridor.

“I’m pretty sure you were doing your hand motion backwards,” Cassie said, “I can help you practise this evening if you want?” asked Cassie sympathetically. 

“Can we just use polyjuice potion and you take my OWLs for me?” Hugo joked. 

“You’ll be fine, drama queen,” Cassie laughed.

“I’ll see you all at lunch, I’ve got to find my way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom,” Cassie said, looking around confused, hoping to recognise someone she could ask for help.

Suddenly a heavy arm was slung over her shoulder, “There you are! Hermione said you might need some help finding your way to Defense,” Lee asked her. 

“Thank Merlin! I thought I would have to walk up and down every corridor trying to find the way,” laughed Cassie, turning her head to look at the older boy, noticing the tall ginger twins standing uncomfortably behind him. 

“Let’s go then, we don’t want to be late. Professor Moody is knowledgeable but absolutely mental,” laughed Lee, leading her down the corridor. Cassie quickly threw her friends a smile over her shoulder as she was  led away, hopefully they would be able to find their way to the Divination classroom. 

“Moody? As in Alastor Moody?” questioned Cassie, returning to her conversation with Lee.

“One in the same,” confirmed Lee.

“I’ve met him a couple of times at the Ministry Christmas party, he’s got some amazing stories about his time as an Auror. He gave me a sneakoscope last Christmas as a gift, seemed quite anxious about dark wizards being around every corner,” Cassie  reminisced.

“That sounds like our lunatic Professor, always preaching… constant vigilance!” Cassie and Lee finished together chuckling. 

The pair stopped in the doorway, giving Cassie time to inspect the classroom. The walls were covered with shelves that housed a mismatched assortment of books, glass jars and other creepy looking implements. The desks had been arranged in pairs, 2 students to a table, all facing the blackboard at the front of the room. It became clear that Cassie would be the only Beauxbatons student joining the class, something she had been worried about. Lee guided her towards the back of the classroom, taking a seat at a desk closest to the window. The twins silently took their seats behind the pair. 

Before she sat down, she walked towards the front of the classroom, she heard whispering behind her and felt everyone's eyes on her.

“Professor Moody, it’s lovely to see you again,” Cassie said to the wild looking Professor who was sitting behind an ancient looking desk. His head snapped up to look at her, his electric blue false eye was wizzing  quickly up and down in his head, appearing to inspect every inch of the girl.

“And you are?” growled the Professor, a small frown appearing between his eyes.

“Cassandra, Cassie Vaughn? I see you each year at the Ministry Christmas party that I attend each year with my father, Kingsley Shacklebolt,” she explained, confused as to how he didn’t recognise her. 

“Miss Vaughn was it?” he questioned, appearing to become increasingly anxious, “what can I do for you?” 

“Um, I’ll be attending your sixth year classes until the end of the year,” she said, still confused.

“Fine, sit,” he grumbled, “I don’t know how you are taught at your namby pamby school in France, Miss Vaughn, but here we are purely practical. How else will you innocent children learn to defend yourselves?” he said in an almost sinister tone. 

Cassie could help the uncomfortable shudder that went up her spine, something about his demeanour seemed off. This wasn’t the Alastor Moody she had met at the Christmas parties. Quickly turning on her heel she rushed back to her seat beside Lee. For the first time in her life she was happy to be sat at the back of the classroom. 

As soon as she sat down Professor Moody stood, “Put your textbooks away, we will not need them for this lesson. Today we will be learning the favourite curses, used by the darkest of wizards. Some at the ministry think you are too young to learn these curses, I think differently,” he growled, turning to the board and scrawling the title “ unforgivable curses” across it. Cassie let out another uncontrollable shudder.

“My fourth year students were able to tell me the three unforgivable curses. Who here has the courage to start us off?” he said, spinning around, his fake eye landed on Cassie, unmoving.

“Come on, anyone anyone,” he jeered, “Ah, Mr Weasley thank you for volunteering,” Cassie spun round in shock to see George had timidly raised his hand, although he looked incredibly uncomfortable. 

“The imperio curse,” he almost whispered. 

“Of course, your father would know all about that one. Caused the Ministry quite a few issues in the wake of the Wizarding War, who’s telling the truth and who’s lying?” he said. 

Moody raised his wand and summoned three glass jars containing enormous whip spiders, countless students in the class scooted back, an involuntary movement at the sight of the arachnids. Cassie couldn’t help but cringe back as well. Carefully unscrewing the lid of one jar, Moody waved his wand and summoned the spider, making it land on his open palm. Turning to face the students with a sick grin on his face he muttered “imperio.” 

The spider suddenly went rigid. Moody made the spider land on the desk of two girls at the front of the classroom. Suddenly the spider began a strange tap dancing routine, legs flailing wildly as it skipped in a circle. Some students in the class began to laugh as the spider shot through the air doing cartwheels and landing on their peers' heads, most of them froze in fear. Cassie however began to feel sick to her stomach, knowing that the hideous creature had no control over its body. 

“Think it's funny, do you? I could make it do anything, fly up your nose, spin a web around your head, throw itself out the window.” Moody said, an edge to his voice as he dangled the spider out of the window next to Cassie and Lee’s desk. The class sobered up at the thought, putting themselves in the spider's situation. 

“Mr Jordan, do you think you could give us another curse?” questioned Moody, making the spider land on the desk between him and Cassie. 

Lee looked at Cassie with wide eyes, shaking his head slightly, Cassie nodded her head at him somewhat encouraging although her face was grim.

“I’ve heard of the cruciatus curse,” he mumbled, unable to make eye contact with the Professor. 

“Ah a particularly nasty curse, the torture curse. Used to cause physical pain but can also drive the subject insane after prolonged use,” Moody said almost gleefully. 

Moody muttered the curse under his breath. The spider began to wrath on the desk, its entire body crumpled in on itself as if it was trying to get away from the pain. Cassie couldn’t look at the poor creature, deciding instead to look straight to the front eyes focused on a point just behind the blackboard, tears began to prick her eyes at the sheer barbarity of their Professor's actions. 

She noticed everyone let out a breath as Moody stopped the torture curse, Cassie’s eyes flicked to his face to find that he was staring directly at her, a sneer on his face. 

“Maybe our guest should tell us the last curse,” he said evilly, placing the spider on Cassie’s textbook that she had left on the desk in front of herself.

“No,” she said, shaking her head, “I won’t,” she continued defiantly. 

“Oh, but it’s caused you so much grief in the past, Miss Vaughn. This curse has probably affected you more than anyone else in this room,” he leered, slowly walking towards her. Everyone in the room had turned towards the girl looking at her with a mixture of sorrow and curiosity. 

“I said no,” she said loudly, proud that her voice didn’t quiver or display any emotion. She kept her eyes facing the small point at the front of the room, not daring to look at the teacher or the spider.

“Fine, Ms Johnson, if you will,” he said. 

“The killing curse,” Angelina muttered, glancing towards Cassie with an apologetic look. 

“Thank you, Ms Johnson. At least Hogwarts students respect authority,” he said, nodding appreciatively at her.

Striding towards Cassie’s desk and standing directly in front of her he muttered the curse. Cassie felt the energy of the curse ruffle her hair, the bright green light blinding her for a second. Glancing towards  the teacher she noticed a small smile tweak at the corner of his lips, a cruel glimmer in his eyes. 

“Next time I ask you a question Miss Vaughn I expect an answer,” he growled, turning abruptly and walking towards the front of the classroom. 

“A single use of any of those spells will gain you a one way ticket to Azkaban. I should know I’ve sent people there for less,” Moody said. 

Suddenly the shrill bell rang indicating the end of the lesson. Cassie instantly jumped up, grabbing her satchel and racing out of the classroom before anyone else had even stood up. As she passed the professor she muttered under her breath, “you’re sick”. Not looking for a reaction Cassie continued on her way, racing through unknown corridors past the bewildered faces of students. Stopping in a quiet hallway she rested her head back onto the wall, closing her eyes and breathing deeply, finding the feeling of cool stone relaxing. 

The sound of tentative footsteps bought her out of her racing thoughts. Her head snapped towards the sound, grey eyes meeting hazel. 

“Oh it’s you,” she stuttered out, brushing her fingers through her wild hair. 

“It’s just me,” he confirmed, nodding his head. 

“I’ve got your book, you left class so fast you must have forgotten it,” he continued somewhat awkwardly. He noticed her eyes grow wide as she backed away from the book he was brandishing towards her. 

“I got rid of the spider. Don’t worry,” he tried to console her. 

“I can’t do that again, I won’t. I’m swapping Defence or I’ll just skip every class for the rest of the year. I can’t sit in there again, with him,” she began to ramble. 

“Cass, calm down, just breathe,” Fred said trying to keep his tone calming, stepping closer to her. That appeared to be the wrong move, Cassie shied away from him completely, her face showing great hurt and sorrow. 

“Leave Fred, thank you for my book but please leave me alone. You’re not helping right now,” she whispered, emotion clear in her voice.

“Cassie, stop being so stubborn and let me help you,” he said, annoyance clear in his tone. He didn’t understand why she was so intent on avoiding him. 

“Leave Fred! I don’t want your help! You lost that right!” she shouted. Making him cringe back.

“I don’t, I don’t understand,” he stuttered.

“Leave!” she continued.  Shaking his head he placed her book down on the floor at his feet.

“I only wanted to help, I only ever wanted to help you Cass,” he mumbled before he walked away dejectedly.

Cassie shook her head and crumpled down the wall curling her arms around her legs and burying her head in them as she began to sob. Somehow she felt worse than she did when she arrived in the deserted corridor.