Just Friends
Minnie snuck out of the common room with little trouble later that evening. Her roommates were often asleep early, except Josie who was pouring over Quidditch strategies.
"Where are you going?" Josie asked as she looked up from her book.
"I'm hungry." Minnie lied. "I'm going to sneak down to the kitchen."
"I'd think so with the rabbit food you've been eating lately." Josie chuckled leaning back into her pillow, "I'd be starving if all I ate was a grapefruit and a spring salad for dinner."
Minnie didn't want to admit that although her mother's advice to eat for her stomach ache worked, she was worried she would remain fat forever.
"Yeah." Minnie trepidatiously admitted.
"Hey, bring me some pasties while you are there." Josie chuckled before licking her fingers and flipping a page.
Minnie responded with a small salute before continuing on her journey. She cautiously rounded corners, hoping no teachers were on duty. She managed to make it to the portrait guarding the entrance to the kitchen. She'd never been there on her own, but her dad had told her where it was. He loved sneaking food from there.
She wondered if Warrington would ever arrive, or if she'd been stood up. Even if he didn't arrive, she wondered if she would have the proclivity to ask Lulu the questions she had. Warrington proved his interest and arrived with the clip clop of his trainers against the stone floor.
"Hey!" He whispered a greeting.
He tickled the pear on the portrait before it transformed into a doorknob.
House elves were everywhere. Minnie wondered if it was how Hagrid felt being around students. There were freed and enslaved elves everywhere. Minnie could tell by their clothing if they were free or not. Many had been freed years before, but many said they would rather die than be paid for their work.
"Master Warrington, what can we get for you? Favorite jerky perhaps?" A little enslaved elf with burnt hands asked coming up to them.
"Oh no Wigby, we're here to see Lulu, we want to ask what she knows about the people who disappeared." Warrington explained.
"That's a new one." A house elf with a big baseball cap, a pair of green shorts and a star covered shirt answered. She strode over to them and seemed to be chewing bubble gum.
The little Elves' eyes darted between them. She rested her hands on each side of her shirt. "I'm Lulu. What you want to know? I don' know about what'll happen with them Hogsmead visits."
"What can you tell us about the people themselves, the ones who disappeared?" Minnie asked nervously.
Lulu's expression shifted to extreme confusion, "Fair people they are. Sometimes Green could be a bit pushy about her clippings, but she's always been that way. Teasdale can still hold a bit of oppressive ideas against us elves, but he's no one suspicious. Honestly, if we weren't worried for their personal safety, this would be an inconvenience."
"Inconvenience?" Warrington repeated. He was writing everything as quickly as he could.
"Lot's going on in here." Lulu explained as she tested a boiling pot of soup, "s'pecially with the Halloween feast approaching! It's a horrible time to have this sort of inconvenience. Most of our suppliers gone. Thankfully Flume is still keeping us stocked in treats."
"Yeah, Uncle Flume says Halloween is his best time of year, save Christmas." Minnie chuckled.
"Related to Flume are ya?" Lulu asked with a tilt of her big eyes. "Fine fellow. Almost as nice as his parents. Shame what happened to them and their little girl. It's a shame, pretty thing Miss Alice was, when I was training with my mummy we would pick up supplies from them. She would always be kind to me, always sneaking me sweets."
Minnie knew what had happened to her grandmother, but thinking about it, no one had ever mentioned her great grandparents before.
"She's my Grandma." Minnie volunteered without thinking.
"Oh silly me, I didn't realize you were Neville's daughter." Lulu laughed throwing her little arms back. "He's a kind man. He was a kind boy too. I oversaw the menu of your parent's wedding feast, proud day for me. I'd never prepared a wedding menu before."
Minnie laughed, she'd seen the pictures from her parent's wedding day. They'd been married on the grounds.
"Do you know anything else about the disappearances?" Warrington asked making the elf shrug.
"They's all good suppliers. All have been for years." Lulu explained, "Not much else, just that one minute they's there, the next they were gone."
"Do you think someone is taking them?" Minnie asked.
"If they is, they don't like Hogwarts, seems like they wanna ruin all of our hard work." Lulu grimaced. "But I know nothing about who'd be doin it, cus Lulu would stop them."
Warrington and Minnie thanked Lulu for her help before stuffing their pockets with a few treats.
Warrington helped Minnie down from the portrait hole, taking her by the waist.
"Thanks." Minnie said as he let go. The press of his hands lingered on her waist. "Sorry this was sort of a dead end."
"Nah, it wasn't. It proved your theory that these disappearances have to be connected. It gives us a better place to start for motives. Someone really wants either information about Hogwarts or the students, or they want to cut Hogwarts from their regular supplies." Warrington admitted before his thin lips turned into a smile. "Like Lark Crawford said in his book, if you can identify a motive, you can identify a suspect."
Minnie was highly impressed, "That's a good point Warrington."
"You can call me Cas by the way."
"Huh?"
"You only ever call me Warrington, which is fine I suppose, but my friends all call me Cas." He put his hands into his pockets.
"We're friends?" Minnie asked, liking that idea. It was less terrifying than fancying him.
Cas threw his head back as he laughed, "I don't sneak off to kitchens late at night with people who aren't my friends."
"That makes sense." Minnie said before turning to leave. "I'll see you around then Cas."
"Hey, Longbottom." Cas called after her.
"What?" Minnie turned around.
"What do you prefer to be called?" Cas asked, "Minnie or Minerva."
"Minnie. Only my mum calls me Minerva."
"That's a shame." Cas observed, "I like Minerva. It's a nice name."
"I just like Minnie better." Minnie said with a shrug. Normally people jested at her name.
"Ok," Cas nodded and continued his handsome smile, "I'll see you in class Minnie."
Minnie turned to make her way back to her common room. Those butterflies began fluttering in her stomach again. She needed to ignore them.
She and Cas were friends, and nothing more.
She did like how his hands had been on her waist. She liked how his eyes had looked her over, and if she'd been pretty she'd have wanted him to keep doing that. She liked how he called her Minnie and had intelligent theories about investigations.
She knew she needed to move her thoughts from him. She knew he was with someone else. Someone who hated her, and would only hate her more if she knew she fancied her boyfriend.
She struggled keeping her mind away from his eyes, especially when everything reminded her of him.
She focused on considering suspects, but that made her think of the investigation. The investigation made her think of him again.
She focused on her schoolwork, which was hard to do in any class they shared. He'd taken up a habit of sitting with her when Josie or Cody didn't take their usual spots with her.
This whole situation was increasingly troublesome. How did one get anything done if they had a fancy? Minnie had always been such a sturdy person before.
"Why have you been hanging around Warrington so much lately?" Cody asked at the Halloween feast, not helping her attempt not to think about Cas.
Minnie didn't want to tell Cody either of the reasons. It was an investigation after all and if too many people knew about it, it would make things quite muddy. She also knew if she told him she just liked being around Cas, Cody would sniff out that Minnie fancied Cas. That was a scarier prospect than Cas knowing.
"Gazette stuff." Minnie semi lied. "He's nervous his writing isn't good enough."
"So he asked you?" Cody pushed his bottom lip up, almost like a fish, "Seems reasonable, you are quite smart."
"Thanks." Minnie answered eating her grapefruit. Her stomach was hurting again, even though she was eating. She wondered if maybe her mother had been wrong.
"He's a fine writer." Cody agreed.
Minnie hoped that was the end of Cody's investigation. Cody would tease her, then he'd tell Josie. If Cody told Josie, Lysander would obviously find out, then it was only a matter of time until Alice found out. Alice was the last person Minnie wanted to know about this.
Minnie scanned the room, now that Alice was on her mind she noticed she wasn't around. Which was odd for Alice, her favorite feast was the Halloween feast. The rest of the Gryffindor team was sitting at the end of the table, but Alice wasn't there.
Minnie's eyes darted to Alice's little friend group, like Beatrice and Ruby. They were sitting together, sans Alice. They were pouring over a Witch Weekly Magazine and giggling together.
Minnie scanned again over to the head table, wondering if Alice was maybe with her parents. Sometimes on holidays her parents let them sit with them at the head table. Her parents were quite without Alice. Instead, they were being slightly more affectionate than they normally displayed while they were on property. They were holding hands under the table. Certainly Alice wasn't around for that.
"When's your interview with McGonagall?" Cody asked interrupting Minnie's search.
"Tomorrow afternoon." Minnie responded cautiously.
"Not that it'll be much of an interview isn't she practically family?" Cody asked.
"I mean, my name is Minerva." Minnie said before making a face. "Might be a sign my parents like her."
"Hey guys!" Lysander greeted before sitting down across from them.
"Hey Lysander!" Cody greeted before grabbing a whole serving of treacle.
Minnie worried upon seeing Lysander, considering he was notoriously always late for supper. Alice was never late for supper. She was always early.
"Lysander, have you seen Lissy?" Minnie asked making Lysander's expression switch. "I'd have thought she'd have come in with the team and she hasn't."
"She was still on the Quidditch pitch when I passed by it." Lysander shrugged, "I guess maybe she was practicing on her own."
Minnie took that as an answer and was momentarily relieved when her sister walked in. She didn't take a place with the Quidditch team or with her friends, instead seating herself beside Lysander. Minnie was happily surprised her sister would still choose to sit with her.
"The oddest thing just happened, Jeanie, that new girl with the pretty hair, told me she heard we were part dragon!" Alice exclaimed with a huff sitting down at the table. Her braided hair bounced and twisted as she dramatically waved her hands. "She asked if that's why I fly so well. Then she asked me if it's weird that Duke's my cousin twice removed or something?"
"Part dragon?" Lysander raised an eyebrow.
Cody coughed abruptly as he attempted Pumpkin Juice. He couldn't hold back the laughter as it cascaded from his mouth.
"What's so funny?" Alice asked scowling at Cody.
Minnie had to admit seeing Alice completely flustered was rather funny. Her cheeks were already red and chaffed from the evening air, so the excessive redness from her confusion made her resemble a ripe cherry tomato.
"I mean do I look like I have scales or something?" Alice asked lifting her sleeves and revealing her very white and freckled skin.
Minnie joined Cody in laughter as Alice's panic continued. Lysander's whole expression dulled.
"I am not part Dragon and Duke is not my cousin! I explained that he's mum's companion and before that he was Kai Jones' companion! He chooses to stay with us!" Alice continued griping raucously, causing the whole quidditch team to look over.
Josie very openly rolled her eyes before slumping back to her food. She had her back turned.
"Alice we don't need the history lesson and you don't need to make a scene, I was just pulling Jeanie's leg. Poor thing needed a laugh that day." Cody chuckled, "I told her a made up story."
Alice's expression changed a little after realizing what Cody had said, "Oh! Damn, I wish I'd known, I'd have told her of course they cut off my tail years ago and that my freckles are undeveloped dragon scales!"
Cody began laughing. He nudged Minnie's arm, "You never mentioned Alice could be funny."
"Alice can be very funny." Lysander agreed with a smirk, "When she stayed with us, she taught our choir of Puffskiens to sing Taylor Swift songs."
"Talented too!" Cody exclaimed. "Although mediocre music choice."
"I will take no shame thank you." Alice said dramatically putting her hand to her heart, "I enjoy the classic Muggle American girl music and I'm allowed. It sounds even better when dramatically sung by Puffskiens."
Minnie took a deep breathe of relief. She'd been distracted enough that she had forgotten all about her fancy. That was until she looked up and noticed that Cas and his friends had also noticed the commotion Alice had created.
Morgan was mimicking Alice's movements, putting his hand to his chest making Cas laugh. She had also briefly forgotten how Warrington treated Alice. How could she fancy someone who was so staunchly horrible to her sister?
Cas stopped his laughter, meeting Minnie's eyes. He elbowed Morgan making him stop his outward display towards Alice.
Minnie quickly dropped her gaze and stared at her supper. This fancy had to stop. They were just friends.