CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE;

BENEATH THE MISTLETOE

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

November fell upon the castle sooner than it should have; Cassie had been dreading the month since.. well, since November of the year prior. Thankfully, nobody knew of her birthday – except Harry, of course, her father, mother, godfather, and probably Dumbledore (he seemed to know everything somehow) – and Cassie was determined to keep it under wraps this year.

The night before her birthday, Cassie tossed and turned in her bed practically the entire night, until she heard the twelve chimes of the grandfather clock in the common room. It was officially midnight – and, in turn, her birthday. Hooray.

She never had trouble finding reasons to avoid celebrating her birthday: In third year, Harry had been in the hospital wing after a dementor scare on the Quidditch pitch. In fourth, everybody was too caught up in the Triwizard Tournament; even Cassie had forgotten her own birthday. Perhaps this year she could weasel her way out with some sort of excuse...

   The first of many bad happenings on the twenty-third occurred at breakfast, in which another Daily Prophet article had been released; claiming that Cassie had inherited her father's murderous genes and that the only reason she had good grades in Divination was because she had threatened to kill Professor Trelawney if she were to fail.

   The second thing to irk Cassie was the fact that Cho had gotten buddy-buddy with Harry – so much so that, in the fleeting moments that the pair locked eyes across the Great Hall, Cho had gathered up the nerve to wave. She waved. As if her boyfriend didn't snuff it less than a year ago.

   The third, and perhaps worst of it all, happened at that night's D.A. meeting.

   Cassie, already in a bad mood, and returning from her detention with Snape, had nearly forgotten about their meeting; she made it halfway to the common room before her bewitched Galleon burned in her pocket and reminded her. She arrived to the Room of Requirement late, though nobody seemed to take notice.

   "..because it's the last day before holidays and there's no point in starting anything new right before a three-week break–" Harry was saying as Cassie snuck into the room and took her spot on the cushion beside Neville.

   "We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith in a loud and disgruntled whisper. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't've come!"

   "We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you then," said Fred, rolling his eyes. George snickered. Everyone turned their attention back to the Boy-Who-Lived, and he continued his speech.

   "We can practice in pairs," said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, just–"

   Harry faltered; the door opened again and in snaked none other than Atticus Forbes, his robes lying crooked across his shoulders, a silver pin sitting on his chest. He was breathless, though still managed to grin at Harry as he moved to his cushion. He said, "Sorry I'm late, Potter. Duties ran long, couldn't find a time to slip out."

   The last thing Cassie expected Harry to do was smile all friendly-like at Atticus. "S'alright, Atticus – anything we need to be aware of?"

   "Nothing new," said Atticus, straightening his tie and robes. He removed the pin from his chest and shoved it into his pocket. "They're all idiots. Didn't even take me long to convince them that you lot are too thick to organize something like this."

   Harry grinned and nodded again. Something seemed to click in Cassie's mind, and she let out a soft noise of realization. The pin.. the sneaking around.. was Atticus a spy for the D.A.? He caught her eye and seemed to read her mind; he gave her a very pointed wink and nodded once. "Glad you finally caught on," he mouthed. "And happy birthday."

Despite herself, she broke into a small smile and shook her head. "Thank you," she mouthed in reply, before turning her attention back to Harry.

"As I was saying," he said, "we'll practice Impediment Jinxes for a few minutes, then we can pull out the cushions and try Stunning again."

Cassie's spirits fell – she could never master the Stunning Spell; all her attempts ended with her on the floor instead of her opponent. Hermione very gingerly pulled her aside once after a meeting and said, in a very timid voice, that it was possible she couldn't do the Stunning Spell because she had tried to Stun Voldemort right after Cedric died. Hermione believed it was a subconscious reaction, but Cassie knew it was just that she was horrible at Stunning Spells.

Neville, however, had improved with his Impediment Jinxes and Stunning Spells beyond recognition. He managed to best Cassie four times with an Impedimenta and eight more with a Stun. As Harry called them all back to close up, she could easily feel multiple bruises forming on her shoulders and stomach.

"Really nice work everyone," said Harry brightly, smiling. "Really, really brilliant. When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff – maybe even Patronuses."

There was a murmur of excitement as the room began to clear. Cassie picked up her bag and very quickly approached Atticus, who seemed to be waiting for her. He grinned.

"I see you've finally come to your senses," he said charmingly. "Couldn't resist, could you? They all come crawling back to the Forbes, I tell you that.."

"Cocky bastard," she muttered, though she tilted her head down to hide her smile. "Can't believe you hid this from me this whole time."

"Oh, no. No, no," he said, shaking his head. "Not the whole time. In fact, I really did like her teaching methods, at first.. but then she gave me detention for using my wand to flip to the right page of my book, and I had to use that god-awful quill – I can't imagine how you endured an entire week with that punishment – but anyway, I came to realize how horrible she is, in the end."

"I'm glad," said Cassie, still smiling as her and Atticus left the Room of Requirement. Everyone had cleared out rather quickly; the pair of them were the only ones around as they walked down the corridor. Cassie reached for her wand, out of habit, but was confused upon feeling an empty back pocket. She groaned and said, "I've left my wand. Don't wait for me, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Until tomorrow, my dear cousin," said Atticus, saluting her with two fingers before turning the corner at the end of the hallway. Cassie jogged back to the wall holding the door to the Come-and-Go Room and frowned upon seeing that the door had faded in her absence. She squeezed her eyes shut and thought of what she needed – 'I need to get my wand' – but upon opening her eyes, the door still had not reappeared.

She cleared her throat and said aloud, "I need to get my wand." The door appeared, though somehow it seemed to be reluctant in doing so. As if it didn't want her to enter.

Once the door reached its full size, Cassie seized the handle and pulled the door open. Her eyes fell on her wand, sitting next to the cushion where she had last landed when Neville Stunned her, but there was another figure in the room – scratch that, another two figures.

Harry and Cho spun around mid-kiss. Everything seemed to stop – Cassie had forgotten why she re-entered the room, Harry's cheeks seemed on the verge of bursting into flame, and Cho had tears running down her face. Cassie opened and closed her mouth very stupidly, all three teenagers staring at each other in silence, until Cho cleared her throat.

"Were you looking for your wand?" she asked gingerly, nodding toward the piece of wood on the floor. Cassie closed her mouth and nodded silently, moving to pick up the wand without saying anything. She made it to the door, her and Harry still making very intense eye contact, until she finally spoke.

"I'll let you two continue the snogging then," she said in a grumbly voice, swiftly leaving the Room of Requirement to report exactly what she'd seen to Hermione.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

What Cassie awoke to the next morning made what had happened the day prior seem like a grain of salt.

"Oh, good, you're up," said Hermione worriedly the moment Cassie opened her eyes for the first time. "It's– it's horrible, really, oh, Merlin!"

"What's happened?" Cassie asked, quickly standing from her bed and moving to Hermione's side. "What is it?"

"It's Mr. Weasley," she said breathlessly. "He's been attacked! He– The– the Weasleys have all left to be with their mother, Harry went with them–"

"Attacked?" Cassie repeated incredulously. "How's he been–?"

"It was a snake," said Hermione at once. "He was bitten by a snake last night at the Ministry – Harry said he saw it happen–"

"How did he see it–?"

"He says he was there. In his dream, I mean – he watched it happen in his dream."

"Oh, this is horrible," Cassie breathed, running a hand through her hair. "When can we go visit?" Hermione bit her lip and looked away; Cassie's jaw dropped. "You mean we can't visit?"

"Not until we get out of school," said Hermione quickly. "And– well, I'll be skiing with my parents – or I'm supposed to be, at least – but you can go the minute we're released for break. I think they're at Grimmauld–"

"Grimmauld!" Cassie said, her eyes lighting up with inspiration. "We can talk to them!" She rushed over to her trunk and shoved all of her things aside – clothes, books, letters – until she found the old pair of socks she had stuffed her two-way mirror in for safe-keeping. She pulled it out hastily and cleared her throat. Seeing as Lavender and Parvarti had already left for breakfast, she shouted into the mirror, "DAD!"

It was Remus who answered her call, looking quite distressed. He exhaled a breath of relief upon catching sight of Cassie. "Are you alright? Listen, we–"

"Is Mr. Weasley going to be okay?" Cassie asked over him. "Are the Weasleys there? Is Harry alright? And Ron, is Ron upset? Oh, and Mrs. Weasley! Is–"

   "They're fine!" he said loudly. She shut her mouth quickly as Hermione peeked over her shoulder and came into frame of the mirror. "Hello, Hermione. But yes, they're all okay, just a bit shaken up. Harry's alright. Mrs. Weasley's with the healers at St. Mungo's, she should be coming here soon. Are you two okay?"

  "Besides dying of nerves, yes," Cassie answered bluntly. "How are Mum and Dad? Alright?"

   "They're fine," he said automatically. "A bit stressed, with the holidays coming up and now all the extra bodies around the house. Not that they don't enjoy it, I'm sure they're sick of only having themselves to talk to... Oh, and they're sorry they didn't send you anything for your birthday. Harry had sent Sirius a letter and he got sidetracked."

    "Oh."

"Anyway," said Remus, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, "we'll see you over the break, yeah? Tonks and I'll be there to pick you up from the station. I'll keep you updated, as well, so keep your mirror close."

"G'bye," said Cassie absently, tossing her mirror shard onto her bed and rubbing her forehead. "Merlin. I only just woke up... Why didn't anyone tell us when it happened?"

"Suppose they couldn't get into our dormitory," said Hermione. "Umbridge fixed the stairs so they turn into a slide when a boy tries to get in.. It would've been useless anyway."

"Merlin," said Cassie again, sitting on her closed trunk with a thud. "Winter holiday can't come fast enough..."