Cassiopeia's Tale

Cassiopeia woke to hear people muttering excitedly. She stared at the roof of the hospital wing for a while, trying to make sense of where she was and how she got there.

"Oi!" someone suddenly yelled. "She's awake!" And at that the muttering grew louder and the owners of the voices all crowded close for a better look. Cass looked around at the sea of faces, searching for the one that looked more familiar than the rest.

"Mara?" she asked, wondering why her voice sounded so strange and small.

"Here!" Mara said, standing next to the bed in what appeared to be a bright red nightdress.

Cass smiled. Mara's curly hair was wild and stood about her face in odd ringlets. "How long have I been here?"

Mara Shrugged. "Not too long. About 16 hours. You were out cold for most of it, but then you started muttering, which attracted the crowd again."

"Again? What do you mean 'again'?"

Mara rolled her eyes and sighed, but before she could explain she was interrupted by Madam Ersun, the school nurse, who was suddenly at the back of the crowd, brandishing her wand and yelling. "All right! All right! Now that you've all seen the spectacle you can return to your classes and leave my patient in peace! Out you go! You too! No! Leave that!"

Grumbling, the students left, helped along by threats and prods from Madam Ersun's wand. When the crowd had dispersed and only Mara remained, Madam Ersun stuck her wand into her apron pocket and took Cass' temperature. "Well, it seems you'll live."

Cass blinked. "Was there ever a chance that I might not?" she asked, but Madam Ersun was already heading for her office.

Mara chuckled happily. "Well, no, but it's a quite riveting tale."

"Do fill me in," Cass said sarcastically when Mara showed no sign of continuing the story.

"All right, all right, don't get all bossy with me." Mara said, flicking her hair, which only made it worse. "When you fainted Snape picked you up and carried you here himself. It being at the end of the lesson the hallways were packed with staring students. At one point he yelled at a particularly dense group that you might die if they didn't get out of the way, and he asked if they would want the death of a fellow student on their conscience. It was of course only a white lie to get them to clear a path for him, but it caught like fiend fire, and when he reached the hospital wing with you almost the whole school was there, staring and wondering why you were at death's door."

"I don't know if I should feel flattered or insulted," Cass said incredulously. "I have almost no friends, but the whole school turned up to watch me die!"

"Yes, well, Snape and Madam Ersun yelled at them and told them to go away, but it was only when it became clear that you weren't going to die that they all left, feeling rather disappointed. Although they returned when you started muttering in your sleep, which was rather amusing in it's own right."

Cass stared at Mara, waiting for the worst, but Mara started opening boxes of chocolate and seemed to have quite forgotten about Cass.

"Mara! Did I say anything... you know, embarrassing?"

"No, you weren't talking any sense. Something about a dark quintet that will rule the world with the eagle. You also told me repeatedly that I should hide the princess."

Cass couldn't decide whether she was horrified or fascinated. "I said that?"

"Yep," Mara said, nodding while sucking the praline from a large chocolate pumpkin. "I thought you might like it, so I wrote it down for you. You can paste it in one of your journals."

Cass laughed in spite of herself. "Thanks, that was really thoughtful of you."

"I know, how adorable am I?" Mara said sarcastically while selecting another chocolate, trying to see the index at the bottom of the box without spilling out it's contents.

"Uh, Mara?"

"Yep?"

"What are all these sweets doing here?"

"This?" Mara asked, holding up the tray of chocolates, her mouth stuffed with at least four of them. "This is from your admirers."

"Admirers?" Cass was pretty certain that no-one had ever admired her in any way.

"Yes," Mara said looking very serious. "Another riveting tale, I tell you."

"Well?"

Mara swallowed the chocolate, took a deep breath and then very quickly related her tale. "Because of your torn robes and the way Snape picked you up, your robes got caught in his arm, exposing your leg up to your hipbone. The leg was a good show in itself, but a large potion of turquoise lace underwear was also showing, and I daresay a few of the older boys found it rather enjoyable."

"So they brought me chocolate?" Cass asked, wondering who else had seen her underwear. Especially among the teachers.

"Yeah, great innit?" Mara replied, clearly not grasping the full horror of the situation.

-oOo-

The next day Madam Ersun shooed her out of the hospital wing, saying that the only thing she needed was rest and that she could get that in her own bed. Cass was quite relieved to be going, since the staring and speculating was getting on her nerves. It had become apparent that she wasn't going to die, so the school had more or less lost interest in her, but there was still the case of the turquoise underwear. It had become the stuff of legend over night, and the more rebellious or jealous of the lot were wondering whether it had anything to do with her good Potions marks.

Ravenlcaw Tower was a lot harder to sneak into than the hospital wing, and it had the extra advantage of keeping the stupid and the dull out. Cass spent most off her time sleeping, writing in her journals and revising for their N.E.W.T.s that were just around the corner. She did, however, sneak out to thank Snape for his uncharacteristically valiant attempt to save her life.

It was rather hard finding him on his own, and Cass suspected he was avoiding her. It was only on the Friday evening the week after the accident that she managed to corner him in his office. It was an awkward meeting.

"Well, it is to expected of a teacher to see to the well-being of his students." He said, frowning at her, his desk between them. "And how would it look if students made a habit of dying in my class? It would hardly look good on a résumé."

Cass opened her mouth and closed it again. Her gratitude was not received gracefully, and it irritated her. But then another thought struck her.

"Sir, what was in the phial? And why was something so poisonous on a shelf in reach of idiots like Marty Farnsworth?" Cass asked, trying not to sound as if she was accusing him.

Snape thought about it for a bit, tracing his mouth with his finger. "I believe it was a prophetic elixir, badly made by some N.E.W.T student a few years ago. The potion, though poorly mixed, was relatively harmless, but when it came into contact with the fire some of the ingredients reacted to form a poison called Sightblinder."

Cass stared at him for a bit, several gears in her mind clicking into place. She was about to leave when he called her back.

"Miss Sommers, I will write you the recommendation you requested a few weeks ago, provided you keep up a standard of work that will justify such a document. I won't be accused of...ah...favouring certain students."

Cass nodded, feeling the colour rising in her cheeks. She knew he was referring to the rumours that had started up after the accident. For a moment they stared at each other, both thinking of the same thing.

Luckily, the next morning, Slytherin played Gryffindor in what must have been the dirtiest Quidditch match of the century, and with half of all the players ending up in the hospital wing and the other half facing detention, everybody forgot about the turquoise underwear, and Cass sank gratefully back into obscurity.