Memories of Them

As the end of October approached the weather began to change, grey clouds often swept over the landscape bringing a chill that penetrated into the very heart of the school. Cassie found herself layering undershirts and jumpers with her uniform in an attempt to stay warm, however she could never hide her joy at the end of the day when she could curl up beside the fire in the common room. 

On a particularly dreary Halloween evening Cassie found herself making her way through the crowded school corridors towards the Great Hall with a group of her Sixth Year friends. Although she hadn’t found a moment to speak to the twins they continued to follow the group, often looking like a pair of lost puppies. Begrudgingly Cassie had begun to feel sorry for them, realising that as she had befriended their friendship group they had become more isolated from them. And the guilt of snapping at Fred had begun eating her, everytime she caught him looking at her there was a frown on his face and a look of worry clouding his eyes. She had promised herself that she would talk to them by the end of the month, however she had been so busy that there never seemed to be a perfect time. 

The only other time Cassie had seen the Great Hall so crowded was at the Welcome Feast. They could hear the crowd of students from outside of the hall, loud voices and laughs echoing throughout the entrance hall. The tables were crowded again, Cassie noticed that her Beauxbatons friends had found a place beside Ginny, however it was clear that there was no room for her. Throwing them an understanding smile she continued to walk through the crowd with the group of Sixth years. Eventually they found a small space beside the golden trio towards the middle of the room. Cassie climbed over the bench and took a seat next to Lee, who had been animatedly explaining a quidditch match that had been invaded by dementors the previous year. Alicia, Angelina and George took  the seats opposite them, occasionally chiming in with details from the players perspective. Suddenly the entire group went silent, awkwardly looking between Cassie and the empty space beside her, she didn’t understand why until she saw the lanky frame of Fred Weasley standing awkwardly behind her.

“It’s fine guys, I’ll go and find somewhere else to sit, Katie is just up there,” he began.

Before he could even begin walking in that direction Dumbledore rose from his seat at the front of the hall. Rolling her eyes at the boys she grabbed onto the sleeve of his robes and pulled him down onto the bench beside her.

“It’s fine Fred, there’s nowhere else for you to sit,” she muttered.

It was clear that Fred was trying to give her as much space as possible. He had scooted so far up the bench that he was practically sitting in Ron’s lap beside him. After a lot of arguing, pushing and shoving Fred was forced to sit in the small space beside Cassie, cringing whenever he accidently brushed her leg or shoulder. Shooting George a desperate wide eyed look, which caused all of his friends opposite him to snigger, he gave up, realising there was no way out of this situation. If he was being entirely honest with himself he elated to be this close to Cassie for the first time in years. All he had wanted since the first time he had seen her at the beginning of the year was to pull her into a bone crushing hug and tell her how much he had missed her. Shaking himself from that vivid daydream he turned his attention back to the front of the hall, trying to ignore the scent of vanilla and lime shampoo that wafted from her hair. 

“The time has come for our Champions to be chosen,” Dumbledore shouted, dimming the torches around the room so that the only source of light was the Goblet placed beside him, its electric blue flames casting ugly shadows across his face. 

“If your name is chosen to represent your school, please come to the front and exit the hall into the trophy chamber via the side door, over there,” he pointed to a tiny door at the front, “once the ceremony has finished myself, the other headteacher and judges will come and explain the next steps.” 

“The Goblet is just warming up and may need a couple more minutes,” Dumbledore said, adding to the suspense that was already hanging in the air. Nobody dared to talk or move, worried that they would miss the show.

Cassie however could barely focus on anything other than the pressure of Fred’s leg against hers and the smell of gunpowder, cinnamon and lavender that was encircling her. It was tantalisingly nostalgic, reminding her of all of the times that they had sat squashed together at the Burrow dinner table. It was almost enough to break Cassie’s resolve, all she wanted was to lean back against the boy feeling his warmth and comfort envelope her as his arm snaked lazily around her pulling her closer. But things had changed, he had changed. Whatever childhood crush she had once harboured for the boy with floppy red hair was irrelevant to their current situation, they didn’t know each other anymore. 

Cassie’s attention was brought back to the front of the Great Hall when suddenly the flames of the Goblet turned a bright scarlet red, a small piece of parchment shot up towards the ceiling elegantly fluttering down and falling into Dumbledore's outstretched hand. The entire hall was waiting in silence with baited breath as the elderly Professor slowly unfolded the piece of parchment. The Professor's eyes scanned the parchment, then flicked up to scan the students in front of him, taking a deep breath, in a loud booming voice he said “The champion for Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is Fleur Delacore!” 

Cassie clapped and cheered along with the rest of her peers as Fleur stood smiling widely, her perfect pearly white teeth on full display. As she elegantly made her way towards the front of the room her curtain of gold hair swayed behind her, catching the light and creating a metallic halo around her head. Once Fleur’s slim figure had disappeared behind the heavy oak door the Great Hall fell silent again. Cassie didn’t really know Fleur Delacour, she was a popular girl a couple of years older than her, but the two of them had never had a reason to socialise. 

Turning to Lee she whispered in his ear, “Who do you think the Hogwarts Champion will be?” 

“Sorry to disappoint you Cass but it won’t be me,” he responded cockily, making Cassie roll her eyes, “We’re all hoping it’ll be Angie she snuck her name in last night right before curfew without telling any of us!” 

Cassie’s head snapped towards Angelina, her breathing appeared to be heavy and a fine sheen of sweat had covered her forehead. She looked so nervous Cassie was surprised she hadn’t thrown up in the golden goblet in front of her. Giving her a small encouraging smile, Cassie’s focus returned to the front of the room. 

Enormous flames erupted out the top of the goblet again, their bright scarlett light filled the room. A scrappy looking piece of parchment shot out of the top of the goblet and fast began to fall towards Dumbldore’s open palm. Delicately unfolding the piece of parchment Dumbledore’s head turned and scanned the blood red robed students from Drumstrang. 

“Representing Drumstrang in this year's triwizard tournament is… Viktor Krum!” Dumbledore announced.

All of the students from all three schools cheered for the famous seeker as the brawny boy lumbered across the room and exited through the tiny door. Cassie felt slightly sorry for the teenage boy, although he appeared to be successful both in school and out, Cassie wasn’t sure she had ever seen him smile. He always appeared to be alone, slightly ostracised from the rest of his peers.

 Cassie could feel the tension that had settled over the entire Hogwarts population, it was as though every Hogwarts student was holding their breath waiting to see who would become their champion. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the goblet, transfixed by the dancing flames. A sudden whooshing sound had everyone on the edge of their seats, Dumbledore snatched the parchment out of the air and hastily unfolded it, a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 

“Our Hogwarts Champion is… Cedric Diggory!”

An explosion of noise erupted from the table of yellow tied students. Clapping and cheering created a thundering cacophony of noise that had Cassie’s ears ringing. A slender boy with caramel curled hair jumped up from his seat, a wide bemused smile plastered across his face. As Cedric made his way to the front of the room his peers shook his hands and patted him roughly on the back, congratulating him enthusiastically. The Gryffindor table around her were politely clapping along with the rest of the Hogwarts students; however, it was clear on their faces that they were disappointed that the school wasn’t represented by one of their own. It took Dumbledore several attempts to quiet the over excited Hogwarts students. 

“Our three honourable champions have been chosen to represent their schools. I expect everyone in this room to support them wholeheartedly with the same vigour that many of you have displayed this evening,” he joked, eyes twinkling as he looked towards the yellow clad table, “Our first task will be taking place…” 

Dumbledore was cut off by a sudden detonation of scarlett flames. The boundless flames shot out the top of the ancient goblet and began branching out over the heads of the students, swirling and   growing bigger as they brushed the ceiling high above. Terrified screams and yelps bounced off the ancient walls, as people tried to duck and weave out of the way of the wild flames. Cassie felt a hand grab her around the shoulders and pull her backwards into a muscled chest just as a flame whipped past where the top of her head had been seconds earlier. Turning around she met the worried gaze of Fred Weasley.

“Sorry if I hurt you, I saw it making a b-line towards your head,” he said, eyes flitting around her face checking for any damage.

“It’s fine, I think you just saved my eyebrows from being singed off,” she tried to joke.

“I think I saved more than just your eyebrows,” he retorted, chuckling.

Cassie broke eye contact, feeling a slight blush begin to rise up her neck and heat up her cheeks. Turning she tried to check on her other friends, noticing that George, Alicia and Angelina had slid under the table to hide and Lee had his face smooshed into the table in front of him, his expression making Cassie laugh heartily. 

The Goblet was still choking out flames and sparks towards the ceiling, creating a large black soot patch right above it. Once the heat had become unbearable, with students and teachers alike leaning away from the magical object, a blackened singed piece of parchment was vomited out the top, hitting the ceiling and ricocheting into Dumbledore outstretched hand. Throwing a confused look towards the crowded staff table Dumbledore cautiously unravelled the piece of parchment, his face falling in surprise. 

“Harry Potter,” he sputtered out looking around the room wildly, “Harry Potter,” his booming voice then projected across the hall more clearly.

Cassie’s head snapped around looking past Fred’s surprised face towards the younger boy. He appeared to be rooted to the spot, his face pale, eyes flicking between a shocked looking Ron and Hermione. Once Dumbledore had repeated his name for the third time, Hermione grabbed the boy by his robes and shoved him, making him walk towards the front of the room. Hissing whispers and disgruntled shouts began to resound through the hall coming from all directions. Cassie couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor boy who obviously had no idea what was happening. 

“How did he manage that?” hissed George across the table.

“I don’t think he did,” replied Fred. 

“Of course he did,” scoffed Ron, surprising everyone in the group, “couldn’t go a year without being the centre of attention,” he growled.

“Ron, he looked genuinely shocked,” Cassie tried to reason with the boy, knowing that Harry would need the support of his best friends.

“Of course he did, if he acted like he’d put his name in he would have been in trouble. It’s easier for him to play the victim, he knows the role so well,” Ron spat, abruptly standing up and storming out of the hall. Looking wide eyed between the group of sixth years and the door that Ron had just exited through, Hermione jumped up and went running after him, calling his name as she went. 

“Always was one for the drama Ronald,” Fred joked, trying to ease the tension.

“Well, I don’t think Harry put his name in that Goblet,” Cassie said, noticing that Alicia, Lee and Fred were nodding along with her.

“I don’t know, Ron seemed pretty convinced,” George began looking towards Angelina who seemed to agree with him.

“Ron doesn't know his ass from his elbow,” Fred muttered, causing everyone to laugh whilst he grabbed a large serving of casserole that had just appeared in front of him. 

The rest of the table began eating, talking about the contest and the strange turn of events.

“Do you think Dumbledore will make him compete?” questioned Cassie under her breath turning her body to face Fred.

“I don’t know Cass, they said it was a binding contract there might not be a way to get him out of it,” Fred said, his eyebrows knitting together with concern. 

✵❂✵

Slithers of moonlight were peeking through a gap in the curtain illuminating the room in a ghostly silver glow. Cassie felt as though she had been lying awake for hours, staring at the canopy above her head and watching the progression of shadows across the room. Anxious thoughts kept swirling through her mind. The choosing ceremony had created a fractured tension within the school, everyone appeared to have split into two camps, those who believed Harry had not put his name in the goblet and those, like Ron, who believed he had done it for attention. Cassie had spent most of the evening trying to convince her friends of Harry’s innocence, the girls hadn’t cared either way but Hugo and Fabian were convinced that Hogwarts having two champions was some big plan to win the entire tournament. It didn’t appear to matter to anyone that Harry had looked as though he would rather eat a flobberworm than become a champion.

Huffing slightly Cassie gave up entirely on sleep, grabbing a thick jumper and her homework out of her school bag she quietly headed down to the common room. As he got closer to the bottom of the stairs she heard the hushed whispers of conversation echoing up the staircase, peeking her head around the corner she saw three red heads peeking over the top of the sofa. Smiling softly she headed over to the sofa directly in front of the fireplace, joining the small group.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” she whispered questioningly, going over to the plush armchair facing the sofa and curling up in it. 

The group of three Weasley’s smiled exhaustedly at the girl, shaking their heads. 

“We wanted to wait up for Harry,” Ginny mumbled, rubbing her tired eyes.

“He’s still not back?” Cassie said surprised, “shouldn’t we go looking for him?”

“The boy got the surprise of his life this evening, I’m sure he just needs some time to come to terms with everything and clear his head,” Fred said reassuringly, eyes twinkling in the firelight.

“And you’ve changed your tune, I thought you believed he put his name in the Goblet?” Cassie asked George, raising her eyebrows at him disapprovingly.

“Just needed some sense spoken into me, that’s all Cass,” George said, a jokey smirk on his face. 

Cassie rolled her eyes. She was getting tired of them calling her her old pet name. Everyone called her Cassie except her closest friends. 

The foursome's tense chatter soon became an awkward drawn out silence. Nobody knew how to start a conversation and the twins were too worried about saying something wrong that would incur Cassie’s wrathe. Snuggling down into the armchair and pulling a blanket tight around herself, Cassie decided to ignore the tension entirely and start reading her Care of Magical Creatures textbook. After half an hour of flicking through the section about the Protection of Unicorn’s act, Cassie raised her eyes to peer over the book. The scene in front of her was adorable, Ginny had clearly fallen asleep wrapped in a knitted blanket with her head in George's lap and her feet in Fred’s. Cassie had always loved and admired the tight bond between the Weasley siblings. The twin’s were facing each other, clearly having a silent conversation that contained a lot of eyebrow raises and rolling eyes. Cassie wasn’t going to fret over trying to decipher their strange sibling code, this was clearly a conversation they didn’t want to have in front of her. Turning her eyes back to her book Cassie quickly became engrossed in the chapter about the rights of Merepeople. Someone clearing their throat broke the silence. 

“Cass?” George said quietly. 

Cassie’s eyes flicked up to look at the pair, both were shuffling nervously.

“Mmm?” Cassie hummed, her concentration split between the book in front of her and the twins.

“We were hoping we could talk to you,” Fred said.

“You already are,” Cassie said childishly. 

“Cass!” George groaned. 

Folding the corner of her page and snapping her book closed, she folded her hands in her lap and looked up at the twins giving them her full attention. 

“Yes?” 

“What do you think Cass? You have been cold and sullen since you arrived,” George said, hurt clear in his eyes. 

“I don’t know what you want from me!” Cassie groaned. 

“For you to stop being rude and talk to us maybe,” Fred grumbled, looking angrily towards George trying to show that this whole conversation was a bad idea.

“You don’t get to pick and choose! You can’t ignore me for years and then expect me to act as though nothing has happened when it suits you! I don’t know you anymore,” she argued.

“What does that even mean! We’re Fred and George, your best friends since the age of two!” George said, voice slightly raised. 

“No you're not!” Cassie said, feeling the angry heat rising in her face. “You promised when you went away you would write every week! You promised nothing would change. I haven’t heard from you in five years, how could you possibly still be my best friends!” 

The twins looked completely taken aback by her outburst, both cowering slightly back into the sofa with devastated expressions on their faces.

“It’s taken me a long time to get over this, you acting as though nothing has changed only hurts me more,” she whispered. 

“Cass, what do you mean you haven’t heard from us in five years?” Fred asked quietly, carefully moving Ginny’s feet off of his lap and walking towards the girl in the arm chair,  crouching in front of her.

“Exactly what I said, Fred. You haven’t sent me a letter since November of your first year. At first I  put it down to the excitement of the first year and your workload. Then the time between letters became longer and longer until they finally just stopped. When I found out you weren’t coming home for Christmas of first year I was devastated, I thought you had forgotten all about me. Then I heard nothing from you, it seemed pretty desperate to keep writing to your family so I stopped. I eventually gave up writing to the both of you in my third year. It all felt kind of pathetic by then,” she babbled, aware that she was speaking faster and faster.

“Hold up, November of first year?” questioned George. 

“Yes!” Cassie almost shouted.

“But we owled you every summer inviting you to stay,” Fred said with a bemused expression on his face.

“We had always assumed you stayed in France with your friends when you didn’t write back,” George continued. 

“And I wrote to you almost every day until fourth year,” Fred whispered, his eyes appearing to be glistening slightly in the firelight. 

“He’d sit in the back of potions writing letters to you,” agreed George. 

“Well I didn’t receive anything from either of you. The only person I kept in contact with was Ginny,” Cassie mumbled, looking down at her intertwined fingers and chewing harshly on her lip. 

“Cassie, I promise you, we wrote to you. I thought you’d be proud of us. We were writing more than once a week. I would try and tell you even the smallest of events in the most detail so it would feel as though you were there,” Fred whispered. 

“Our favourite letter was one where we described locking Filch in the storage cupboard with a load of Cornish Pixies we stole from the Defence classroom,” George chuckled.

“And the one we wrote to you straight after we made it onto the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. You were always the first person we wanted to tell anything too,” Fred continued. 

“I just don’t understand where all of those letters went though,” Cassie whispered looking between the two upset boys.

“Probably the same place yours went,” Fred shrugged a weary smirk on his face, “you said you stopped writing in your third year? We haven’t heard from you since our first year either.” 

Cassie was completely shocked. She had never even considered that their letters just weren’t getting to each other. The betrayal and hurt began to melt away, feelings of confusion replacing them. 

“But I wrote to you all the time, about everything! My friends got so annoyed by it that they refused to walk to the owlery with me, ” Cassie said almost desperately.

“I believe you Cass! I would however also like to point out that I clearly cared about you more, I stopped writing after you,” Fred teased, trying to relieve some of the mournful energy that had settled over the trio. 

“No you idiot, if I stopped writing in my third year so you would have been in your fourth,” Cassie argued, laughing, glad that Fred had been able to lighten the mood.

“Well I dated all of my letters, when we find them I'm sure we’ll find that you gave up first,” Fred retorted. 

“I think we’ll all find that I wrote the longest,” George joked, grinning at the pair across the room. 

“Shut up,” Cassie and Fred laughed in unison, making the trio burst into laughter.

“Where do you think they went?” asked Cassie after they had all calmed down.

“Well if we are all positive that we continued to write, the only explanation would be that someone took the letters,” George said, his fingers rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 

“Who would want to take our letters though?” questioned Cassie, “especially with  Fred’s handwriting, they’d need to know ancient runes to understand them.”

“That was just hurtful Vaughn,” Fred said, clutching his chest dramatically, making Cassie and George chuckle. 

“Well it seems that we've got five years to catch up on, who’s going first?” questioned Cassie, relaxing back into the armchair feeling a sense of nostalgic belonging blanket her. 

The trio sat beside the dying fire catching up on all of the time that they had lost. They fell back into their easy joky mannerisms, teasing each other relentlessly and joking around whilst they explained the events of the last five years. Fred and George focused on all of the legendary pranks they had played on unsuspecting students and staff, whilst Cassie tried to vividly describe Beauxbatons and all of her favourite places within the palace. The twins couldn’t hide how proud they were of all of her academic achievements, even if they did tease her about  being a bigger nerd than Hermione. It truly felt as though they had never been apart. As sky turned from a pitch black to midnight blue the trio stayed huddled together, exhaustion creating a shroud of silence over the common room. Cassie wasn’t sure when she had moved from the lonely armchair to sit on the floor beside Fred, but she was now huddled into his side sharing a blanket trying to keep the night chill at bay. Looking behind her she noticed that George’s head was now lulled on the back of the sofa, eyes closed, small snores emanating from his mouth. Ginny was still curled up, much like a cat, on the sofa, her face buried deep in a pillow. Glancing to the boy beside her she noticed he was staring intently at the dead hearth in front of them, the corners of his mouth slightly turned down. 

Nudging his shoulder slightly and turning to face him, she asked, “what’s going through that head of yours Freddie?” 

“This whole situation! We’ve lost so much time. If you hadn’t come to Hogwarts this year we never would have reconciled. You would still hate us. I almost lost you Cassie,” Fred said, not looking away from the fire but with emotion still clear in his voice.

“You haven’t lost me though. I’m here. We’ve got nine whole months together then christmas’ and summers from here onwards. I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain before, I’ve been stupid and stubborn about the whole situation,” Cassie said, regretfully. 

“Don’t be stupid, you don’t need to apologise for anything, of course it felt like we betrayed you. But nine months doesn’t feel like enough time to make up for five years. Imagine all of the Christmas’ we could have celebrated at the Burrow, all of the lake days and summer Quidditch matches, the midnight feasts and prank wars. You haven’t seen us since you were 11! I want that time back. I will find whoever stole those letters and I will make them pay,” he growled menacingly. 

“Yes we’ve lost that time, and believe me I wish we could go back and change it but we can’t. So let's focus on making this time the best possible. I want to go to Hogsmeade, spend summer weekends around the Black Lake, watch you all play quidditch, explore the castle and eat copious amounts of food in the Great Hall. Even if we were talking we would have been separated for nearly eleven months of the year because of school,” she tried to reason.

“I suppose,” Fred grumbled, “but let’s make a new promise, we write every week when you go back to school and we spend at least a week together every Christmas and Summer holiday,” he said turning to face her, a serious expression on his face.

“Promise,” Cassie laughed, holding out her pinky finger towards Fred. Fred wrapped his longer pinky around hers shaking it up and down slightly making Cassie laugh. 

The pair were interrupted by the sound of the portrait hole swinging open. Turning around they met the eyes of an exhausted looking Harry Potter, his hair was sticking up at all angles and his robes hung untidily off of his shoulders. Cassie instantly jumped up, making her way over to the boy whilst Fred gently shook his siblings awake, informing them of Harry’s arrival. Gently putting an arm around the younger boy's shoulders Cassie led him over to the sofa to sit with the Weasley siblings, returning to her spot on the floor beside Fred.

“What did Dumbledore say, Harry? Surely they can’t force you to compete,” Ginny asked quietly, her voice still clouded by sleep. 

“There’s nothing he can do, as of this evening I am an official champion in the triwizard tournament,” Harry said bitterly, not meeting the eyes of those around him.

“We’ll get mum to write, she’ll march right up to the school and force them to see reason. You know how scary she can be, nobody wants to be on the wrong side of Molly Weasley,” George tried to joke.

“Even Mrs Weasley couldn’t get me out of this,” Harry grumbled, “Where’s Ron? Too tired to congratulate his best friend on the honour he didn’t want or sign up for?” Harry asked, glancing around the room. 

Cassie and the Weasley siblings all looked awkwardly at each other, none of them wanting to explain where Ron was. It didn’t take Harry long to pick up on the tension in the air.

“He thinks I put my name in that bloody goblet doesn’t he?” he almost yelled at the group.

“He’s just upset, that’s all mate,” Fred tried to reason, looking pleadingly at Cassie, wanting her to try and comfort the boy.

“He’ll come round Harry,” George continued. 

“He shouldn’t have to come round! He should believe me! He’s supposed to be my best friend!” he shouted, clearly not caring that people were sleeping in the dormitories above them. 

“Hermione has spent the evening trying to talk sense into him. You know what he’s like. But we know you didn’t do this Harry. It was clear by the look on your face when your name was called,” Cassie piped up trying to defuse the boy's rage. 

“Yeah well I don’t see Hermione around her offering me a shoulder to cry on” he snapped back.

“Hey mate, enough. We’re all here to support you, don’t go biting our heads off,” Fred said, defensively angling his body in front of Cassie. 

Harry just threw them a rageful look and stormed upstairs, not sparing the group a second glance. 

“Well that could have gone better,” George mumbled, looking around at the group.

“At least he didn’t cry, I don't do well with tears,” Fred said, causing the entire group to erupt into exhausted hysterical laughter. 

“I can’t believe I waited up all night for that prat! Don’t wake me up for breakfast in the morning Cass I think I deserve a lie in,” Ginny said, coming over to give the girl a goodnight hug. 

Stealthily whispering in Cassie’s ear as she was hugging her, Ginny said “we’ll have a discussion about this evening in the morning.” Pulling away from the now blushing girl and giving her a knowing look she slowly traipsed up to bed. 

“Don’t be too harsh on him, he’s just scared and going through a lot,” Cassie said to the boys whilst she folded up the blankets, placing them back on the sofas. 

“We’ll check in on him in the morning,” Fred said reassuringly.

“Cass, the three of us, breakfast at 10.30?” George asked hopefully.

“I’ll be there,” smiled Cassie, watching the retreating figures of the twins until they disappeared up the staircase.