𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞

"Cassie, it's been a week, and you still haven't talked to Fred. At least share with me what went down so I have some understanding of what happened."

Cassie's glum face looked up at the younger girl slowly and methodically. She nodded her head before taking another bite of her toast, which was crisp to golden perfection. A layer of cream cheese spread across the top, adding immaculate taste to every bite. It brought the girl just a small bit of joy, which she desperately needed.

"Can we talk somewhere else? I can feel George's eyes glaring into the side of my head." Cassie held in the eye roll as she spoke, trying to maintain her composure.

Jasper turned her head and found the daggers, which stabbed Cassie's side. One twin looked down at his plate with pain filling his surroundings, the other ready to fight anyone in the way. The young girl stuck her tongue out blowing raspberries before turning back to Cassie with a large grin on her face. The two look right at each other in silence for a moment before bursting out into a contagious fit of giggles.

They collectively stood up grabbing the attention of many of their fellow peers before exiting the Great Hall, quickly and with immense joy written on their faces. A complete change from the past week of misery mixed with a looming and ever-growing depression. The difficult change from going to friends possibly more at Midnight to nothing was rough on both teens. Cassie had shut down for the most part and refused to talk about it till they were ready.

"Hurry up Cassie I am extremely nosey!" Jasper shouted as she ran towards the Gryffindor common room practically bouncing her way there in excitement. Cassie's laugh was so fresh it was like watching the rebirth of a Phoenix.

The Fat Lady's wretched singing was cut short by Jasper shouting the password forcing the portrait to complain whilst opening for the two girls. The gnarly sound of the women singing was enough to give anyone a headache, possibly even make their ears bleed. At least then they would have an excuse to stop listening to such distraughtly broken melodies that never tuned properly.

The empty burgundy and gold common room gave Cassie excess amounts of Deja vu. The night replayed in her head like a song on repeat that wiggled its way into the depths of her brain refusing to evict itself from her private thoughts. The plush and soft couch that many nights had been spent on now housed Cassie and Jasper during daylight.

"So, tell me everything, I want no details spared at all" Jasper jumped towards the girl in anticipation, the girl was almost always overly enthusiastic about the littlest of things, but it made her much more fun to gossip and share secrets with.

"Well, I told Fred I wanted to bring out Midnight escapades to the daytime and go public as more than friends," The older girl began but was quickly interrupted by a shocked Jasper.

The girl jumped off the couch throwing her hands up exclaiming "Oh, you have got to be kidding!" before sitting back down to listen in more intently than she had been previously.

Cassie's smile shrunk as she looked down at her lap fidgeting with her fingers to make it easier to share. " He blew up at me and called me delusional for my past wrongdoings. He had a right to be upset but I think he went overboard when calling me delusional."

"Please tell me this is some messed up joke of sorts" Jasper leaned down looking up to meet Cassie's hesitant and hurt eyes.

Never had Jasper, or anyone ever seen Cassiandra so frail and delicate. As if at any moment she could break because she had that many visible cracks in the public eye for the first time, in a very long time. The girl Cassie had hidden away, Yun Aera, was now out to play in a world she was unfamiliar with. The little girl of Asian descent who got called names on the street. The one that had to watch her parents get hate crimes while she couldn't do anything to prevent it because she was too young, and she would have gotten hurt. That version has now emerged and combined with the present Cassie.

"It only gets worse, when I said it was a low blow, he said I had gone lower." The painful memories struck Cassie as she held herself together, she wouldn't allow herself to cry over this again not when she had spent nearly the entire past week doing just that.

Although Jasper was seen as young and thus immature the girl had managed to calm herself and keep her thoughts internal. A lot of harsh things could be said about both Cassiandra and Fred, yet the first year kept them closed off to themselves and just listened.

"God Cassie, I am genuinely so sorry you are hurting right now; it will get better I promise" The young girl dove towards her school mother figure and engulfed her into a tight and much-needed hug.

The kind of hug you don't expect but once you are in it, you never want to leave. As if a guardian angel's wings had been wrapped around the girl's body and she could finally be free and feel safe. Something both had needed, one just a bit more vocal about it than the other.

Jasper whispered into the older girl's ear. "Better head to class, I'd hate for you to be late." she pulled away sending a soft smile before getting up and off the couch and heading to her dorm. Cassie rubbed her forehead before exiting the common room and heading to the Divination classroom, one of the few classes not all Gryffindors shared. Luckily for Cassie, Fred was not in her divination class.

One of the few oddly pleasant classes Cassiandra enjoyed, unlike most students. She had found Professor Trelawney endearing while they all only saw her through lenses of craziness.

"Welcome in young ones, today you will be reading tea leaves for your own journey and predicting your own fate" Trelawney's soothing and hypnotizing voice pulled Cassie in as she sat down right at the front of the class ready to read into any advice, her professor might have for her, even if it came from something as simple as tea leaves.

Cassie looked down at her own teacup mortified, the leaves were in the shape of a snake wrapping itself around an acorn. Her extreme amount of studying told her exactly what this meant. An acorn symbolized unexpected gold in something while a snake represented enemy or falsehood. Together they read that the unexpected gold in her future was an enemy fooling her and wrapping themselves around a golden aura.

"Are you alright dear" Cassie looked up and was greeted by the Professor's face examining her and the cup.

"Not all who appear golden are as they seem my dear" The Professor babbled on while Cassie was stuck on who, or what this could possibly mean.

Was there a snake amongst the lions?