chapter twenty four / partially drunken victories

  "Don't you tell your mother you've been gambling," Mr. Weasley lectured Fred and George, as they all made their way slowly down the purple-carpeted stairs.

   "Don't worry, Dad," said Fred brightly, "we've got big plans for this money. We don't want it confiscated."

   Mr. Weasley looked for a moment as though he were going to ask what these big plans were, but seemed to decide, upon reflection, that he didn't want to know.

   Cassie laughed with Hermione as they stumbled down the elegant steps of the gold stadium, the two girls standing in the back, Cassie occasionally throwing a piece of leprechaun's gold at Ron's back that earned multiples fits of giggles with Hermione.

   They poured back into the crowd soon enough and, after straining her neck and standing on the very tips of her toes, Cassie's eyes landed on a familiar face. She grinned.

   "I'm going to visit Cedric's tent," she told Hermione. "Promise I won't be out too late – I just want to say hi."

   "You know how to find your way back, right?" Hermione scrunched her eyebrows together and pursed her lips.

   "Yes, yes. Go, you're gonna get left behind," Cassie gestured to the rest of their party, who was already a few feet ahead of them and beginning to get lost in the crowd. "Tell the others where I've gone if they ask."

   Hermione jogged ahead to catch up with the rest of them, while Cassie turned and snaked through the crowd of people in the general direction of where she'd seen Cedric standing with his father. It took her a minute or two, and she stumbled into at least four Ministry wizards on the way, but she made it.

   Cedric had just begun walking into his tent when she called out his name.

   "Cedric!"

   The boy turned his head and, upon seeing Cassie waving her hand in the air, grinned. She rushed over and he threw his arms around her in a celebratory hug.

   "Ireland won!" he exclaimed over her head, and she fell limp in his arms. He raised an eyebrow, pulling out of the hug and holding her shoulders in his hands. "What?"

   "Stupid Ireland. Not fair," she grumbled, crossing her arms. "Lost a bet, all because Ireland's so good at playing Quidditch. Not fair."

   "Oh, come on," Cedric laughed, dropping her from his hold. "Come inside, I want you to meet my mum!"

   "Sorry, Ced." Cassie smiled apologetically, but shook her head. "I promised Hermione I wouldn't take too long. See you on the train, though, right?"

   Cedric's shoulders deflated slightly, but he kept the smile on his face. He nodded. "Yeah, see you on the train."

   She made it back to her tent within ten minutes; the only setback being Bagman, just a tad tipsy, slinging an arm around her shoulder and scream-singing 'He's a Jolly Good Fellow' into her ear. Wincing, she detached herself from the man, and was greeted with green eruptions from the flaps of the boys' tent. Hermione, sitting in a corner with Ginny, broad smiles on both their faces, was the first to notice her. She gestured Cassie over and held up a mug of some strange-looking drink Cassie had never seen before. She walked over to her two girls and sat in a beanbag chair next to them, laughing airily at the boys, who were dancing around and waving Irish flags in the air. Ron, on his soapbox of Krum-lovingness, had a very defiant look on his face.

   "C'mon, Ron, it's like you're in love with him!" Ginny shouted from her beanbag, and Cassie shoved her shoulder, even though she, too, was laughing.

   "Krum's a brilliant player! I don't blame Ron for his boycrush!" Cassie shouted, throwing her hands in the air to a chorus of hoots and eyebrow raises from her audience.

   "You saying you've got a crushie wushie on Krummy Wummy?" Fred crooned, and Cassie's jaw dropped open in silent laughter. Her cheeks stained pink.

   "I am not saying that!" she exclaimed, batting away their Irish flags that they'd begun to swing over her head.

   "Viktor and Cass – imagine that!" cried Fred, pretending to swoon into his twin's arms. "Oh, she'll be the envy of girls everywhere, that one!"

   With that, all of the boys (save for Ron and Harry, who were sitting next to each other in the corner – Harry's smile had fallen from his face) burst into a song that seemed to have been well-rehearsed.

   "Viktor, she loves you!"

   "Viktor, it's true!"

   "When they're apart, her heart beats only for you!"

   After a very thorough heckling by Mr. Weasley, the flags were hung back in their places, the music was turned off, and the girls had retired to their own tent for the night.

   Cassie, Hermione, and Ginny stayed up for a few hours after they'd been told 'lights out', seeing as they were the only girls and there were no adults in their tent to lecture them.

   Currently, Cassie sat with her head in Hermione's lap, Ginny's feet resting atop her stomach. A burst of giggles would catapult Ginny off the couch she was on the very edge of, earning even more giggles from the other two girls. They were drunk on euphoria, a feeling Cassie decided she very much liked.

   The ecstasy could only last for so long. Mr. Weasley burst into their tent just after Ginny had made a very crude joke about her brothers, cutting their cackles short with frantic shouting. The girls stood quickly, drawing their wands (even though they couldn't necessarily use them, it felt much safer to be holding them than not), listening to Ginny's father yelling out instructions.

   "Grab a jacket and get outside – quickly!" he hissed, and Cassie realized she could now hear screaming and fire crackling from outside the tent that had been masked by her earlier laughter. The girls scrambled to get their jackets, Cassie pulling her arms through the sleeves just as she stumbled out of the flaps. Ron and Harry were standing there, both boys' hair messy and sleep still evident in their features.

   People were running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them. Loud jeering, lots of laughter, drunken yells – a strong burst of green light.

   Cassie squinted at the mass moving their direction. It was almost as though they didn't have faces... but then, she realized, their heads were covered by a large black hood and their faces masked. Above them, high in the air; four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. Two of the figures were very small, just the size of a child.

   The floating people were illuminated as the marching group walked by a stray fire, and Cassie recognized one of the figures in the air to be Mr. Roberts, the Muggle campsite manager. Her stomach flipped – that must have been his wife and kids.

   "That's sick," muttered Ron disgustedly, as he and Harry moved subconsciously in front of Cassie and Hermione. "It really is sick."

   Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent fully dressed, their wands drawn and a focused look on their faces.

   "We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over the noise. "You lot – get to the woods, and stick together!"

   The eldest of the Weasley family ran off into the crossfire, Ministry wizards rushing after them. The masked crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming even closer.

   "C'mon!" Fred shouted, grabbing Ginny's hand and pulling her off into the woods. They reached the tree line and Cassie risked a glance back, but suddenly wished she had not, as spells continued being cast at the Roberts family and one of the children began spinning in the air like a top. Cassie winced, but a hand dragged her forward.

   As they ran further into the wood, Cassie could slowly feel herself separating from the rest of her group. She called out their names, her words coming out in huffs of air, her grey eyes squinting against the darkness. Then she heard Ron yell out with pain, and made towards the direction his voice had come from.

   "Ron!?" she shouted as she stumbled into a slight clearing. Hermione and Harry were there, too, and they both greeted her, panting.

   "Tripped over a tree root," Ron said angrily, getting to his feet and dusting himself off.

   "With feet that size, it'd be hard not to," drawled a cold voice from behind them.

   Cassie turned sharply, her wand drawn. Draco Malfoy was standing alone, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees. His chest rose and fell in hidden pants.

   Ron told Malfoy to do something that Cassie knew he would never dare say in front of Mrs. Weasley.

   "Language, Weasley," said Malfoy, his own grey eyes glittering. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?"

   He extended a pale finger and pointed lazily to Hermione, who was glaring furiously and flaring her nostrils.

   "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked defiantly.

   "Granger, they're after Muggles," said Malfoy, bored. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around.. they're moving this way, it'd give us all a laugh."

   "Hermione's a witch," Harry said angrily, clenching his fists.

   "Have it your own way, Potter," said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

   "You watch your mouth!" Ron shouted. He seemed offended at this, and made a move towards Malfoy, but Hermione grabbed his arm.

   "Never mind, Ron," she said quickly, pulling him back.

   Malfoy's gaze had been distracted by Cassie, who was standing next to Harry with her arms crossed.

   "Fancy seeing you here, Lupin," he said, drawing out her last name. "I'd've thought you would be shunned in the wizarding world, like your half-breed of a father. Filthy luck, really, that they hired a werewolf as Defense Against the Dark Arts position."

   "Say one more thing about him and—"

   "Of course," Malfoy continued, unfazed by her empty threat, "I knew it all along. Dirty excuse of a man, messy hair, ratty old clothes... it was a wonder nobody else made the connection before Snape did... and there was always that smell–"

   Malfoy's sentence was cut off abruptly; Cassie had pinned him to the tree behind him, her wand at his throat. His breath came out in uneven pants. She pushed the tip of her wand further into his Adam's apple daringly. They both knew she couldn't really do anything with it — but it was still the fact that she had one and he didn't.

   "What smell, Malfoy?" she muttered, and he set his jaw. "No, go on. I'm curious."

   Malfoy and Cassie glared at each other for a moment, before he scoffed lightly and pushed her off. He inhaled sharply before lowering his voice so only she could hear his next words,

   "Your name's on the ancestral tapestry. Burned off, 'course. But I can't help but wonder... have you got a secret, Lupin?"

   "Don't know what you're talking about," she shrugged innocently, crossing her arms. "Must be another Cassie."

   Malfoy stared her down for a moment, him and Cassie making intense silvery eye contact before Harry reached out and grabbed her wrist. The four of them walked off in the opposite direction, Cassie still glancing vehemently over her shoulder every few minutes.

   "How much you wanna bet Malfoy's parents are under those masks?" Harry muttered after a few moments of silence.

   "With any luck, the Ministry will catch them," Hermione replied fervently. "Anyway... where have the others gone to?"

   Fred, George, and Ginny were nowhere to be found, though the path was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders to the commotion back at the campsite. A huddle of teenagers in pajamas was arguing loudly a little way along the path. When they saw Harry, Cassie, Hermione, and Ron, a girl standing on the edge of the circle turned to them and said, "Oú est Madame Maxine? Nous l'avons perdue–"

   "Um.. what?" Ron scratched the back of his head, and the girl huffed.

   '"Ogwarts," she said in a very thick French accent while on her way back to her friends.

   "Beauxbatons," Hermione muttered distastefully.

   "Sorry?" Harry asked, pulling a puzzled face.

   "French school," Cassie said quickly, feeling as though Hermione might've gone on a short rant about the school if she wasn't stopped.

   "Fred and George can't have gone that far," said Ron, lighting his wand like Hermione's and squinting up the path. Cassie pulled out her own, and Harry dug in his pockets, but pulled nothing out.

   "I don't believe it.. I've lost my wand!"

   "You're kidding," Cassie groaned, lighting her wand and squinting towards the ground in search of Harry's.

   "Maybe it's back in the tent," suggested Ron after a few moments of searching.

   "Or maybe it fell out of your pocket when we were running?"

   "Yeah," Harry muttered, "maybe.."

   A rustling noise nearby made them all jump into a tight clump, all except Harry holding their wands in front of themselves. Winky the house elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby.

   "There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and labored to keep running. "People high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

   Another, more distant rustling noise drew Cassie's attention to where Winky'd just come from, and she held her wand in the general direction.

   "Be right back," she muttered to Harry, who nodded (though she was pretty sure he didn't even hear her), and she cautiously began walking into the wood.

   Another rustling noise came again, this time louder and with voices attached. A wave of relief suffocated her as Cedric spoke through the dark wood, and soon after, he himself emerged from the trees, looking only a bit bruised up. Cassie tackled him with a hug, exhaling in relief and tightening her grip.

   "I thought you were about to murder me, Cedric!" she chastised, before pulling away and whacking his chest. He winced. "Don't scare me like that!"

   "I thought you were about to murder me, too," he said, pushing her shoulder. His eyebrows furrowed for a moment, but then he pulled her back into a hug with a smile on his face. "You're alright?"

   "As good as always. You?" she asked, shifting her head so her voice wasn't muffled in his chest.

   "A bit banged up," he admitted, pulling away from the hug and shrugging his shoulders. "Are you alone?"

   "Hermione, Ron, and Harry are just back there," she answered, gesturing vaguely behind her. "Where's your dad?"

   "Helping with the Ministry. Said I should find someone to stick with so I wasn't by my lonesome, but I never got around to it," he said.

   "Oh.. Are you alright? Your arm is.." she gestured to the small spot of blood on his upper arm, but he shook his head.

   "I'm alright, just got hit by some rock somebody was throwing. Should we go find your friends?"

   "Probably," Cassie said, eyeing his arm warily. The two trudged off to where Cass had left her friends, only problem being the fact that they weren't there. She cussed, running her hands through her hair.

   "They've left," she groaned, barely registering Cedric's hand on the small of her back. "Now we'll never find them."

   "You forget that the Weasleys are probably the biggest and most recognizable wizarding family in all of Europe," Cedric said jokingly, nodding his head to where three redheads where clumped together.

   "Fred! George! Ginny!" Cassie called, pulling Cedric by the hand to meet the Weasleys.

   "Oh, Cassie, thank Godric," Ginny exclaimed, pulling her into a hug. "Where're the other three?"

   "We got separated," Cassie explained, "but I found Cedric. Can he stick with us?"

   "Suppose so," Fred said, and Cassie was quite proud that him and George had seemed to have put the Quidditch grudge to a rest–

   "Long as there's no talk of Quidditch," George said firmly. Cassie and Ginny rolled their eyes in sync.

   "Boys," Cassie muttered to the youngest Weasley, who snickered. "C'mon, you lot, let's go find the rest of your family."