People Like Them Are an Endangered Species

Sturgis Podmore, member of the Order of the Phoenix, was sentenced to six months in Azkaban, according to the Daily Prophet that came Friday morning. It said that he’d been caught trying to break into a secured door in the Ministry of Magic on the 31st of August, which baffled me. Sturgis was supposed to be on our side. Of course, there was always the possibility that he’d been put under the Imperius Curse. Tossing aside the newspaper, I was thankful we only had two classes that day, leaving plenty of time after lunch to plant a few Dungbombs in Filch’s office, or maybe blow up some toilets. I was behind on my pranking, anyway.
I sneezed for about the billionth time that morning. My head felt woozy and it was like I had a boulder wedged inside my throat. On second thought, I’d be napping once we got out of double Herbology. I felt like complete and utter shit.
Saturday I woke up feeling even sicker than before. I threw back my covers, sweat causing my pajamas to cling to my body. It was far too hot for clothing, never mind sheets. I coughed a few times and grabbed the box of tissues Rae had put on the dresser for me, using about twenty of them until I could almost breathe through my nose properly again.
I felt disgusting. I didn’t even want to go down to the infirmary and see what Madam Pomfrey could do about it. I rolled around on my bed instead, pushing my hair out of my face and trying to get into a comfortable enough position to go back to sleep. I was happy that the room was empty, although I did wonder briefly where Rae was.
I sneezed once, twice, three times. More tissues were thrown about my bed and the floor. They could stay there for all I cared. I hadn’t wanted to spend my weekend on my deathbed. Sitting up a little, I looked out the window next to my bed. Of course it had to be a beautiful day, not a single bloody cloud in the sky. Even the Giant Squid was having fun, letting the students tickle its tentacles and feed it (I was still unsure of its gender). I grumbled and threw the covers over my head, trying to focus on getting better.
When I woke up again, someone was in the bathroom using the shower. Rubbing my eyes and sniffling, I sat up and looked at the clock, which read 2:15 pm. I’d slept that late?
I hopped out of bed, sending a pile of tissues flying and causing me to grab onto the wooden bedpost. I’d sat up too quickly, and my head was still rather uneasy. The bathroom door opened, revealing Rae wrapped in a scarlet towel, her short brown hair dripping all over the floor as she hummed to herself. She stopped once she saw the state I was in, my face greatly resembling the color of parchment and my hair a knotted blond mess.
‘’My God, Cassie,’’ she mumbled, walking over, careful to step over my army of discarded tissues. She held onto my arm, clutching the top of her towel with her free hand, and directed me back to my bed. I collapsed onto it, groaning rather like the ghoul that resided in the Burrow’s attic.
‘’Once I get dressed, I’m taking you to Madam Pomfrey,’’ she said, searching frantically through her trunk for clean clothes. I grumbled some more but didn’t’ protest. It beat lying in my bed like a lifeless heap.
‘’Here.’’ She put a small pile of my clothes on my bed: some jeans, a grey tank top and a dark purple sweater. ‘’Change into those, I’ll be down in the common room in a few minutes.’’ With that, she carried her own garments with her, retreating to the bathroom.
Getting out of bed was one problem, but putting on clothing was a different dilemma. It took me a good half hour just to get dressed and brush out my hair (I was surprised a family of rats hadn’t moved in). Rae was waiting patiently in the nearly-empty common room, watching from a distance as the twins and Lee tested out their Puking Pastilles on some vulnerable first years.
The sight of them relentlessly puking into their buckets caused me to run right back upstairs and wretch myself hoarse over a toilet. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
Brushing my teeth until my mouth hurt, I went back downstairs, careful to avoid looking at the ongoing experiment in the corner and the sounds and smells that came with it. Rae hurried me out of the common room, waving to the boys when they looked at us skeptically.

‘’When will the steam stop coming out of my ears?’’ I asked Madam Pomfrey irritably, tilting my head to the side and hitting it a few times, anything to make the steam cease. She batted my hand away from my head and put a cork on the potion she’d given me to drink.
‘’In a few hours, dear, you should be as good as-‘’
She was interrupted by the large wooden doors to the infirmary slamming open, causing Madam Pomfrey to drop the bottle she was holding while Rae and I jumped.
It was Fred. He stumbled across the threshold, out of breath and slightly doubled over, clutching a stitch in his side.
‘’Cassie…are you…okay?’’ he panted, hurrying over upon seeing me, frowning when he noticed the constant stream of steam shooting from my ears. Madam Pomfrey pushed me aside before I could answer, repairing the bottle and siphoning the potion from the floor. Rae coughed as the steam hit her directly in the face.
‘’Sorry,’’ I mumbled, moving over as Madam Pomfrey scolded Fred for making such an entrance.
‘’-And the next time you do that, Mr. Weasley, rest assured that you will not be allowed back in this hospital wing,’’ she asserted, pointing her finger up at Fred, who towered over us all. His face was paper white.
‘’As for Miss Bains, she should make a full recovery.’’ He looked slightly relieved at this and even more relieved when the fierce woman turned her glare away from him, looking at me, stress lines etched into her aging face. ‘’The steam should stop in a few hours, but if it doesn’t, I have something that’ll take care of that too.’’ She eyed Fred warily before walking back into her office. ‘’You’re free to go.’’

A few hours later, the steam had stopped coming out of my ears, thankfully. It’d attracted a lot of attention as I watched Lee and the twins continue testing their products on younger students, who obviously hadn’t been going to Hogwarts long enough to know of how hazardous Fred and George could be. The first years, however, seemed rather grateful when Hermione stepped in and threatened to tell Mrs. Weasley what they’d been doing. Rather grudgingly, they stopped, going upstairs to grab their brooms for Quidditch practice.
Having nothing better to do, seeing as Rae was busy serving her last detention with Flitwick for that whole desk incident, I walked down to the Quidditch pitch with them and Lee, wearing a thick red jacket and my Gryffindor scarf, the latter wrapped tightly around my neck. It was cold for a September afternoon, with the occasional wind picking up here and there, causing me to shove my hands deeper in my pockets and pull the scarf tighter around my neck. I settled next to Lee high up in the wooden bleachers, the two of us huddling together to stay warm. Looking around us, more and more students began to fill the seats. Lee and I exchanged looks. Usually Quidditch practices weren’t observed by so many people, and some of the people watching weren’t even from Gryffindor house.
And then it hit me. Harry Potter was the Seeker. Of course people would want to watch him play, especially after what happened during the Triwizard Tournament the previous year. I felt annoyed for him. If that were me in his position, I would’ve yelled at them all to leave me the bloody hell alone and stop staring at me like some freakish animal in a damned zoo. To some it might be considered rude, but if I knew Harry, and I liked to think that I did, seeing as we both practically lived at the Burrow when we weren’t at school, he was probably thinking something similar to that. He was just too nice to say it aloud.
Fred and George were two red blurs, using their Beater’s bats to hit the bludgers with perfect precision. I watched as one narrowly flew by Harry’s shoulder, and another one got Katie Bell’s left arm, Angelina Johnson, the Captain, having to accompany her down to the Hospital Wing about an hour into practice.
I stifled a laugh when I saw Lee watching Angelina leave, a slight twinkle in his eye. He’d had the biggest crush on her for years, but every time he’d ask her out, she would turn him down, only making him try harder and harder. I’ll admit Lee definitely wasn’t bad to look at, being almost as tall as the twins with bright brown eyes and a wide smile. He’d ditched his dreadlocks during our fifth year and usually kept his hair pulled up into some sort of puffy ponytail. He was funny, definitely funny, but he had a sweet side to him as well. Unlike most of us, though he joked around a lot, Lee actually tried when it came to school work.
I nudged him in the side, watching as Harry caught the golden snitch for about the fifth time in an hour. By then, the crowd of people on the bleachers had thinned out a bit. ‘’When are you going to give up on her?’’
He looked at me and shrugged, shifting around a bit in his blue jacket. ‘’She knows she likes me, she just won’t admit it yet. It’ll happen though, trust me, Cassie. I have a few things up my sleeves that I haven’t tried yet.’’ He smirked and watched as I rolled my eyes, focusing my attention on Ron, who had let in far too many goals to count. In my head, I was slapping him and telling him to get rid of his bloody nerves. He’d always had a problem with nerves.
‘’Sometimes I think you’re only wasting your time,’’ I sighed, pulling the scarf from my neck and tying it around my head. He looked at me funny. ‘’My head’s cold, damnit. I’m not weird.’’
‘’I beg to differ.’’
‘’I beg you to go tumbling down those bleacher steps.’’
‘’I beg you to admit that you like Fred.’’
That shut me right up. Lee was roaring with laughter at the sight of my once slightly pink cheeks turning the color of my jacket.
‘’I don’t like Fred,’’ I said after a few minutes, playing with the tasseled ends of my scarf. He gave me a highly doubtful look.
‘’Cassiopeia Alice Bains,‘’ he began. I shot him a glare that would normally scare most into a fear-induced coma. He was long since immune to it. ‘’If I’m not mistaken, I’d say that you are in denial.’’
‘’And if I’m not mistaken,’’ I retorted, my voice dripping with sarcasm, ‘’I’d say that you were kicked off of the Astronomy Tower as a child. I mean really, Lee, you sound almost exactly like Rae.’’ I paused for a moment, watching as Ron let the quaffle in once more. ‘’Did she put you up to this?’’
Lee instantly looked uncomfortable. ‘’Well, she might’ve mentioned something about…getting you to admit…something…’’ I began to clench my hands into fists in my pockets. Lee seemed to sense he shouldn’t have said anything. He jumped up from his seat. ‘’Well, would you look at the time. I have an essay for McGonagall to get working on, so…’’ He was out of the bleachers before I could hex him back into a sitting position.
For the rest of practice, I sat by myself, not really watching the twins or Harry or Ron, but thinking. I didn’t like Fred. I couldn’t like Fred. I wouldn’t like Fred. I definitely did not like Frederick Gideon Weasley. I’d been best friends with him and his brother since before we even went to Hogwarts. I’d had little to no dating experience. It would’ve been wrong. I could’ve ruined everything between us if something bad happened.
So then why did I find myself smiling like an idiot whenever the ginger-haired boy would pop into my head?
Stupid, stupid, stupid! I shouldn’t have been thinking about boys, not when my parents were being forced to drop everything and hide, not when Lord Voldemort (I still felt a bit weird using his name) and his minions were skillfully staying out of the public eye, yet continuing to do what they did during the First Wizarding War. Maybe, just maybe, once the war was over, I could consider putting myself out there in the dating world. If possible, would I ever even think about being with Fred? It was a very small chance, although the thought brought a rather gleeful smile to my face.
That smile stayed all throughout dinner that night, even after Rae had promptly asked if I’d inhaled something recently. It lingered all the way back to the common room, causing my friends to become slightly more concerned. Once the boys went up to their room to take showers and whatnot, Rae hastily pulled me aside to a deserted corner of the common room.
‘’Alright, why the bloody fuck are you smiling like that? It looks like you’ve been beaten over the head,’’ she whispered rather loudly.
I just shrugged, my smile only getting wider. ‘’I don’t know! I can’t stop smiling for some reason.’’
My short best friend took me by the shoulders and shook me, my head lolling around a bit. ‘’You’re not yourself! Normally you’d be scowling over something Umbridge did or threatening to throw someone out a window or something.’’
I pushed her off of me. The smile was gone. ‘’Oi, I’m not always so harsh. And since when is it a crime to smile? Maybe I just had a decent day. Besides, shouldn’t you be happy? Your detentions with Flitwick are done.’’
‘’I am happy! Bloody thrilled, really. All those lines were giving my hands cramps.’’ She sighed. ‘’But that isn’t the point. I know something else happened.’’ She lowered her voice. ‘’Did…anything happen with…Fred?’’
I could’ve sworn I felt my face pale a few shades, and I was pretty pale to begin with. ‘’No, nothing happened with Fred.’’ That technically wasn’t a lie, seeing as nothing significant had actually happened with him. ‘’I was just in a good mood, alright? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to catch up on.’’ And with that, I walked around her to the nearest empty table, tossing my bag onto it. Upon impact, I heard glass break. There went my inkpots.
Rae went up to bed a few minutes later, and by twelve, the common room had emptied out. Thankfully it hadn’t been my inkpots that broke. It was an old Remembrall that didn’t even work anymore, but I liked to keep it with me. Mrs. Weasley had gotten it for me during my first trip to Diagon Alley. It was easily repaired, and by the time I’d finished a good portion of my homework, footsteps sounded from above me. A few minutes later, Fred appeared at the bottom of the boys’ staircase, rubbing his eyes sleepily. I glanced up from my Herbology essay as he sat in the chair in front of me, clad in a pair of red plaid pajama bottoms and an old black t-shirt. We didn’t say anything at first; he just watched as my quill scratched away at the parchment in a messy scrawl, occasionally dipping into the ink pot between us. I couldn’t help but look at him every once in awhile, with his red hair all messy and his brown eyes tired yet awake at the same time. I caught him eyeing the Remembrall, carefully placed on top of my bag.
‘’I couldn’t sleep,’’ he said after a bit, scratching the back of his neck and smiling at me tiredly. I nodded, not looking away from my essay in fear of him distracting me completely.
‘’I’m not even tired, and I’m trying to break the habit of ‘hey, let’s put off homework until the very last minute’.’’ At this, I looked at him, smirking slightly.
He rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head. ‘’Don’t even try to get me to join you in that. I’m already dead set in my ways, love.’’
‘’Oh, I know,’’ I shrugged, trying to focus on my essay but I found it to be immensely difficult with him looking at me like that. ‘’But think of it this way. I’ll be out and about having fun tomorrow evening while you and George sit where we’re sitting now, putting together essays that most teachers would scoff at and use to kindle their fires.’’ The look upon his face caused me to laugh.
‘’I’ll have you know that I am very capable of writing a good essay if I wanted to.’’ This just made me laugh more. He mumbled to himself, folding his arms over his lean chest and glaring at the floor. I went back to writing my essay, trying my hardest not to laugh at him some more.
A few minutes later, I caught him looking at the Remembrall again.
‘’Is that the one Mum got for you in Diagon Alley? Before our First Year?’’ he asked curiously.
‘’The very same,’’ I smiled, picking up the hand-sized clear glass sphere and examining it.
‘’Does it still work?’’
‘’No,’’ I shrugged, carefully placing it back inside of my bag. ‘’It stopped working awhile ago. I can’t bring myself to toss it, though.’’ I played with the Pheasant feather that stuck out from the end of my quill. ‘’It was one of the first items that really linked me to the Wizarding World, you know. Not to mention it was a gift from your Mum. I’d feel weird throwing it away,’’ I sighed, staring at my essay on the Snargaluff plant, which I’d be finishing some other time.
Fred picked up the essay and looked at it, his face screwed up in concentration. I raised an eyebrow when he started mumbling things to himself.
‘’Fred? What exactly are you doing?’’
‘’Homework,’’ he muttered, continuing to stare at my messy handwriting so he could memorize what I’d written thus far. I just rolled my eyes.
‘’What happened to you and George doing your own homework this year?’’
He glanced at me from over the piece of parchment. ‘’This is different. Besides, you’re starting to sound like Hermione.’’
‘’How is this different?’’ I laughed, closing my ink pot and sticking it in my bag with the quill. ‘’And I do not sound like Hermione.’’ I kicked him from under the table to prove my point. He hissed in pain and handed me back my essay, which went into the bag with nearly everything else I owned.
‘’Why couldn’t you sleep?’’ I asked, ending my sentence with a yawn.
‘’George. He’s snoring like a bloody giant up there, I swear,’’ he mumbled, pulling his wand out of nowhere and fiddling around with it.
I just laughed and shook my head, taking out my own wand and examining it. 11 and ¾ inches made of Hawthorn with a Phoenix feather core, ‘’unyielding’’ as Ollivander called it, I loved my wand. It suited me perfectly, in my opinion.
If there were two things I’d admit I was good at, they would be nonverbal spells and Transfiguration, especially when it came to humans. Seeing as Fred was distracted, making random objects levitate around the room, I was able to flick my wand at him unnoticed.
His hair went from being bright orange to a violent shade of purple, similar to that of the sweater I was wearing. He didn’t notice anything, but when he looked over at me again, I was covering my mouth with my hands, trying to stifle a giggling fit.
‘’What the bloody hell is wrong with you?’’ he asked cautiously, prodding my arm with his wand. As he did so, the book he’d been levitating fell noisily to the ground.
‘’No-nothing,’’ I coughed, standing up and slinging my bag onto my shoulder. He didn’t look thoroughly convinced as I walked over to his side of the table, taking his face in my hands and placing a loud, wet kiss right on his cheek.
‘’Ew,’’ he laughed, wiping off his face. I turned from him laughing, trying to hide the fact that I was blushing madly.
‘’You should get some sleep, Freddie. Oh, and if George is still snoring, try a Silencing Charm.’’
He stopped wiping at his face and looked at me, probably feeling stupid for not thinking of that himself. ‘’R-right. Well, ’night, Cassie,’’ he smiled, getting up from him chair and waving before heading up the boys’ staircase.
I lay in my four poster bed that night, thinking about how, even with purple hair, Fred was attractive. Well, to me he was. I wasn’t too sure of how the rest of the school would react once they saw Fred’s transition of becoming a grape head.
I wondered silently how long it would take for someone to even say something to him about it.