The New Scar

Chapter Five

"Aw come on Cassie. Quidditch try-outs today." Fred punched me playfully on the shoulder. "Fred and I don't want to miss you in action on account of this sore attitude."

It was lunchtime and I was sitting next to Fred in the Great Hall. Classes had gone strangely awry this morning. In Herbology, my Tentactula had begun its teething stage and began to gnaw on my hand without me knowing. (At first, it has a very gentle and non-lethal bite, but it made my hand bleed after an hour of "healthy teething".) In Charms, we were working on anti-insomnia charms. My wand backfired and I fell asleep for the rest of the class period. And in Transfiguration, I had unwillingly received the name of "The Female Seamus" for blowing up Professor McGonagall's desk as she was sitting at it. She told me that I had wonderful potential, but incredibly poor aim.

I was glad to relax and eat for a while. "You think that I have a chance?"

George piped up from the other side of Fred. "'Course you do. Fred and I can see by your shape that you'd be a good keeper."

"My shape huh?" I smiled at them. Fred blushed. "Well, you're only going to pick me if I'm good enough right?"

"Right. But then again, no one else is going out for seeker. Um...'cept for Ron of course." The realization of his own brother hit Fred.

I took a large swig of milk from my glass, and wiped away the mustache over my upper lip. "Well then Ron and I will have to show you who's best."

"Cassie." A voice came from behind me. I turned and Hermione was standing there. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." I stood and began to walk out into the Entrance Hall with her. After we got out there, Hermione spun around to look up at me in the eye. "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Look, you're trying out for keeper right?"

"Yeah...how long have you not known that?" I had been talking very little the past few days, but when I did, I talked about try-outs.

"Well," she began. "There's someone here that I think you'd like to meet." She called down the hallway. "Professor..."

Professor McGonagall walked into view with a burly young man at her side. "This, Cassie, is Oliver Wood. He was our previous Quidditch captain for Gryffindor last year, and he's come back for the season to watch the games."

Wood was slightly taller than I was with a broad frame...a perfect keeper body.

"Right...so what does this have to do with me?"

A wonderfully fluent voice came from Wood. "Well, it's not too hard to see that you could easily beat Ron Weasley when it comes to keeping. I had heard about Shawmain, and their wonderful keepers, and I was just interested in meeting one, and seeing one in action."

I held out a hand. "Cassie 'The Wall' McGerald at your service."

<*>

" 'The Wall'?"

Ron had burst out laughing at dinnertime when I finally told him about my meeting with Wood.

I had glared at him. "That's right Ron. 'The Wall'. Never have I missed a block, hence I earned the nickname." Even though Ron was just harassing me, it was kind of funny thinking that someone like me would have a nickname like "The Wall." Even so, I flicked a piece of meat at him.

"Well, just don't go too easy on me." He said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"What makes you think that I'm going to go easy on you at all Ron Weasley?" I eyed him carefully.

He swallowed. "Well, you wouldn't want to make a fool of me in front of my brothers would you?"

I ginned wickedly. "You know, before this, I was just going to make the team instead of you. Now...I'm going to make you cry."

"Bring it on, Yank." He put out his hand for me to shake. I decided to be a good sport about it and took it. Without warning, he put our two hands into an arm wrestling position and whacked my arm down onto the table.

"It's already brought, Brit." I felt his hand relax for a second, but a second was all I needed. I seized my opportunity to swing his arm over and it thumped on the table. I gave his hand a hard squeeze and looked into his shocked eyes. I let go and sat down looking as calm as possible.

Harry brandished a fork at me. "Careful with him Cassie." He had an amused look in his eyes. "You want a fair fight don't you?"

Hermione muttered next to me. "Honestly..."

I nudged her arm with my elbow and continued to eat. I couldn't very well be a keeper with no weight.

<*>

After dinner I ran up to my dormitory, and carefully lifted my Nimbus 2001 out of my trunk. Not the best broomstick on the line, but best in my life. I originally had a Cleansweep, but Ann had gotten me a new broom for the new school year. I hadn't tried it out yet. Though I suppose that I should have. But where would I be able to practice Quidditch, a totally primitive sport to Muggles, in the Muggle world? John had clearly stated, "No Quidditch in the house," after I had gotten home from my 1^st year.

I brushed a thin coat of dust off of its black handle, and set it on my bed. I slipped off my skirt, and yanked on a pair of jeans and a jacket as a substitute for my Hogwarts robes. Finally ready, I set off down the stairs, and outside to the Quidditch field where Fred and George had told Ron and me to meet them.

I walked over to a bench on the side and set my broomstick up against it. I did a few stretches. Quidditch had been an incredibly intense game in America. I wasn't sure how bloody it was going to be here.

"Cassie!" My name rang out over the field. I saw 2 red headed 6^th year boys jog across the lawn to meet me. "You ready?" Fred asked.

"Born ready." I picked up my broomstick, and then noticed something slightly odd. "Where's Ron?"

George answered, "He said that his cut was giving him a bit of trouble, and he was getting a huge headache and figured that he wouldn't be able to give his best performance in a try-out."

I rolled my eyes, unable to believe this story. "Okay, so what's the point in me trying out if no one else is?"

"Oh we've got another candidate." Fred smiled slyly.

"Really?" I leaned against my Nimbus. "Who do I have to make cry now?"

From behind me a small male voice called, "Hey! Wait! Don't start without me!" I turned around and a small boy, with hair that looked like a mouse's nest was running towards the three of us, waving his broomstick, tripping over his own feet.

I stared in astonishment. "I have to beat...that?" This is going to be cake! I thought. "He's half my size! You put him on the Quidditch field, a bludger would pick him off in a second flat!"

George got close to me and whispered, "We know, we know. But McGonagall said that if we don't give him a chance, she'd pull us out of the chance to win the Quidditch Cup. And don't think that she won't."

The boy stopped next to me and looked up at the twins. "So..." he panted. "When do we start, and who am I up against?"

Fred and George both pointed at me in unison. And the boy looked up at me in slight awe. "Wow! You're...you're Harry's friend. Oh my gosh! It's an honor to meet you!" And he took my hand and shook it.

I decided to return the kid's kindness. "Cassie McGerald. And you are...?"

"Colin Creevey. 4^th year." He beamed.

"Kinda small for a 4^th year aren't you?" I smiled down at him.

"Okay kids." Fred chirruped. "Enough chitchat. Let's decide who our next keeper's gonna be." And he rubbed his hands together excitedly as if this was too much for him. "Angelina! Bring 'em out! These are our three chasers."

From a near corner of the field, three girls emerged from the side of the stands, and walked over to us. "Hi," one girl said. "I'm Angelina Johnson."

The other girls chimed in. "Alicia Spinnet."

"Katie Bell."

"Cassie McGerald."

"Colin Creevey."

Introductions aside, we began to try-out. I was assigned to the goal posts at the far end of the field, and Colin was at the opposite. The chasers were to pass the Quaffle to each other and try to make a goal. They had 10 minutes to score as many goals as they could. They'd go back and forth trying to score in each side. Whichever keeper had blocked the most, or all of them would be accepted on the team.

"Well, get moving McGerald," George stared at me slightly impatiently.

I straddled my broom, and kicked off of the ground. It was an unforgotten sensation, flying high above the ground. I positioned myself in front of the goal posts, and was ready for anything. The Nimbus 2001 was an excellent broomstick. It moved at the touch, was prompt, and gave a smooth ride.

Fred blew a whistle down on the ground, and it began. The chasers chose my side first. I watched as they passed the Quaffle back and forth with such agility. My senses became incredibly alert. The ball went for the goal down at my left side; I swung down and caught it. I threw it to Alicia. She smiled at me and passed it to Katie. I watched them down at Colin's end. From where I was, he seemed scared to death of these 16-year-old girls throwing a ball in his area. But, from what I could see and sort out with my logic, they were going incredibly easy on him.

Finally, when there was one minute left, Colin had blocked 4 out of 9 and I had blocked 9 out of 9. The chasers were down at Colin's end, and were taunting him. Doing fake throws and stuff of the sort. I felt slightly sorry for him, and was a bit repellent to the girls, but thus was the job of a chaser. Come on Colin. You can block this one. Come on man.

He blocked it. I could see from across the field that he was smiling brightly. The time for me to become a Gryffindor keeper had come. I pulled my jacked tighter to my body to get maximum movement. I leaned close to my broom handle. My eyes followed the ball back and forth from one hand to the next. This was my goal, to guard my posts from that ball. As far as I was concerned, the ball was the enemy, and the handlers were pawns in helping it to destroy my goal: it's final destination.

Alicia hurled the ball at the lower right goal. I instinctively swished down with my broom and expected to feel the ball somewhere on my body or broom, but it never came. It had been a fake! And Alicia had passed it to Angelina, and they scored in the highest and biggest goal post. And I, "The Wall", had fallen for the oldest trick in the book.

I saw George on the ground and he was motioning for Coin and I to come down. After we were on the ground at each other's side, the twins confronted us. "Excellent job Cassie!"

"Really splendid!"

Then they turned to Colin. "Colin...uh...better luck next year old chap."

"Keep up the practice."

The little boy looked up at me sadly. I felt sorry for the kid, and I gave him a look of pure sympathy. He looked down. I smiled and put my arm around his shoulders. "Hey kid. You did good." And I gave his body a little hug.

After Colin had left the field to go to his dormitory, the other players brought me into the locker rooms for some butterbeer. They had called Harry down from the school to join in the celebration. He gave me a huge pat on the back and was beaming brightly. "I'm really proud of you Cassie."

"Not bad for 'The Wall' huh?" I said.

Fred and George lifted their bottles. "To 'The Wall'!"

Everyone else lifted their bottles and followed suit. I felt myself turn red and finished off my butterbeer.

<*>

Harry and I walked back up to the dormitories. The other players stayed behind and talked with Wood.

"Why didn't you want to stay behind with Oliver?" I asked him.

"I wanted to get back up to Ron."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. I guess that I should apologize to him for being so possessive of being part of the team."

Harry raised an eyebrow at me. "What? Didn't you hear how he was feeling?"

"Oh please! You don't really believe that act do you? He just didn't want to be beaten so badly."

He stopped walking and looked at me accusingly. "How can you say that? It's not an act! Do you really think that Ron would be chicken enough to not try out? It's what he's been talking about for years!"

I stopped with him. "W-what? I-I thought..."

"You thought wrong, that's what." He stormed off up to the castle shaking his head.

I stood there. "Harry..." I whispered inaudibly.

A wind blew coldly around me. What had I just done? It was just like me to jump to conclusions. Ron really was hurt. And I had just acted like I didn't care at all. I snapped back into reality and sprinted up to the castle.

I reached the portrait hole. "Password?" The Fat Lady implied.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on." I panted. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with the password on it. "Levacious."

She swung away from the doorway and I ran in. A few people were studying or playing cards. The only people that I noticed weren't in there were Harry, Hermione and most important of all, Ron.

I dashed up the stairs and burst into my dormitory. Again, no one was in there. I tossed my broomstick on my bed and knew just where to go.

The door to the boy's dorm was closed. But I knew that they were in there. I opened it and saw over by a bed shadows moving around. I approached cautiously, trying not to make my presence noticed. When I reached the bed, I saw that Ron was lying, sweating on his back in his bed. Hermione was sitting next to him dabbing his forehead, being careful of his cut, with a wet cloth. Harry was hovering over him looking incredibly nervous.

I stood at the end of the bed. Ron's body was drenched in sweat. His clothes were sticking to him. Oh my God, I thought. He had broken out in a huge fever. His chest was heaving up and down very slowly, and the room was so quiet, I could hear his staggered breath.

Hermione looked at me. "There was something in that knife."

I took a few steadying breaths. "Why didn't you take him to Madame Pomfrey?"

"We tried," Harry explained, "but we couldn't get him to move. He says his head hurts so bad he can't open his eyes."

"Hermione haven't you tried any potions? Spells? Aloe? Something?!"

She shook her head. "I couldn't find anything," she said quietly.

I leaned as far over Ron from the foot of the bed as I could. "Ron? Ron, can you hear me?"

"He won't be able to answer." Harry was standing half-hidden by the shadows with his arms folded across his chest. "Just let him rest Cassie."

"No!" I heard my voice crack and felt myself getting warm. "He's got to fight it. He can't just lay there and let it take him over."

Harry lifted his eyes from Ron to gaze at me. "Well, there's nothing else he can do now is there? You think that he can go against something as bad as this?"

"Look at him Harry! If this keeps up much longer, he's going to either die, or lose all sense of everything! Are you going to just stand there and watch it happen?" A few tears slid down my cheeks.

Harry dropped his arms from his chest and walked quickly over to me. He put his face just inches from mine. In his bright green eyes, I saw incredibly deep concern, and worry. "Listen to me." Even though I could feel that his body was warm, he spoke so icily, it sliced through me. "Ron is my best friend. I've nearly lost my life for him, and he's nearly lost his life for me. I'm not going to watch him go down, but there's nothing he can do for himself. If we tell a teacher, or especially Madame Pomfrey, there'll be explaining to do. Not to mention what the Slytherins will do to me, and especially you just because we have had the 'honor' of meeting Voldemort in a way that they never will."

At the name of the dark wizard, Ron's body began to convulse.

"Ron!" Hermione took hold of his shoulders and tried to hold him down and make him stop moving.

I ran to pull her hands away. "Don't. Just let him finish it."

"Maybe he should do something about it..." Harry began.

"Shut up Harry!" My words were just as violent as his had been, and he closed his mouth.

After moments that lasted hours, Ron began to relax. I knelt at his head and brushed away his hair from his forehead. The wound looked better, but as I felt the heat from him, I knew that it was throbbing.

"We've got to do something for him." I looked at Hermione. "One way or another, someone is going to notice that he is like this."

Hermione looked as if she had discovered something. "In my trunk in our dorm. Come on Cassie." She ran to Harry and gave him the wet cloth. "Keep this on Ron's head, and keep it wet. Make sure it's as cold as you can get it. We've got work to do."

Hermione grabbed my arm and she tore out of the room with me fish-lined behind her. On our way out, we passed a sleepy Seamus.

As we ran up the stairway, I called out behind me, "'Night Seamus!"

He yawned dismissively, "Night Cassie." He proceeded into the dorm and closed the door behind him.

After Hermione and I got into the dorm and closed the door, I heard Seamus's voice scream up the stairs, "Cassie? What the bloody hell...?"

<*>

"McGerald! What's the worst thing that you can do with a Cruciatus Potion?" It was potions class as everyone had dreamt that it would be as soon as Snape got himself together.

"The worst thing that you can do with a Cruciatus Potion, sir, is making it." Potions class had never been as involved as it had now compared to the beginning of the year.

After Hermione and I had realized what had happened to Ron, we immediately sent him to the hospital wing, despite Harry's constant swears and empty threats. We had told Madame Pomfrey that his wound had been hurting again, and he should be put to rest for a while. She didn't protest

And, we had been paying extra close attention in Potions class. Especially this particular lesson.

"The Cruciatus Potion is, in fact, the liquid form of the Cruciatus Curse. It has the same effect, is just effective in torturing, but has worse effects." Snape seemed to be enjoying himself in talking about an Unforgivable Potion. "When hit with the Cruciatus Curse, one simply begins to twitch and convulse until the one who hit the person...well, stops it. Yet, when given the Cruciatus Potion, the victim has it in his system until it is used up. Which, depending on the amount, may take a considerable amount of time."

I raised my hand. Snape seemed to like my "interest" and knowledge in the dark potions. "Yes, McGerald?"

"Sir, what exactly would be the effects of the Cruciatus Potion? In the order that they occur?"

He smiled, (if you could call it that), and proceeded to tell us what happens when a "victim of torture" is given the Cruciatus Potion.

"Well, for a few weeks, they feel nothing. The potion is sinking in by then. After those few weeks, they get a massive fever. If given orally, the potion will eat up the stomach ever so slowly. The victim may panic from the experience and die, or they might live with the pain." Snape enjoyed lecturing us on this far too much than was necessary. I hated to push him into it when he did it so willingly.

"But what if it wasn't given orally?" I asked.

"What do you mean? How else could it be administered?" He looked at me inquiringly.

"Well, say that someone had a cut, and some of the potion accidentally got into the body through the cut." I hoped that he wouldn't notice what or whom I was getting at.

"Well, then the potion would consume the nearest thing. You should be smart enough to know that McGerald." And he continued with his lesson.

<*>

"It's weird. I've never seen Snape be that nice to anyone that wasn't a Slytherin." Hermione, Harry and I were walking to the hospital wing, not bothering to go down to dinner.

When we got there, Madame Pomfrey almost didn't let us in. "The boy needs rest I tell you!"

"We're his friends!" I spoke down to her. "You can't deprive us the right to talk to our friend."

After a few more minutes of arguing, she reluctantly let us in. "10 minutes. No more." And she left us alone.

Lying in the bed behind a curtain was Ron. His head was wrapped in what I assumed to be a soothing bandage. He was sitting up in bed drinking huge gulps of water from his cup. Hermione threw herself over him. "Oh Ron! Thank God you're ok!"

His water flung in the air and all over him. "Hermione!" he laughed.

I sat in a chair by the bed. "Ron we're so happy to see you better."

"Thanks. This damn cut won't stop throbbing. I know how you feel, Harry, when your scar hurts."

Harry sat on the edge of the bed. "We know what's wrong with you."

Ron became alert suddenly. "What? How do you know? What's happening to me you guys?"

I held him back with an arm. "You should sit back for this. Hermione, will you do the honors?"

She looked at me as though she had been issued a death sentence. "No way! You do it."

I sighed. "Alright." I took Ron's hand. He looked into my eyes, and I looked into his. I started to talk, but nothing came out. I broke down and walked away from him. "Harry you do it."

"Oh for the love of...! Ron, what was in that knife...we know what it was. You've been administered the Cruciatus Potion.