Wolfsbane // Neville Longbottom

Chapter 17: Friends

Cassie seemed to be recovering from her fall out with her sister rather quickly much to Neville's surprise. He would have expected her to be angry and sad about it for much longer but after they had spent the night drinking, crying and kissing, she had been okay.

A week had already passed and she genuinely felt okay. It was much easier to let go of her sister again than she had expected it to be. Of course, she felt sad about it. She had wasted her time writing to her and hoping that they could build up their bond again, but somehow part of her was rejecting the need to cry about it.

Part of her was angry at her sister for having those beliefs and disagreeing to the point where she felt that if her sister couldn't see her for the human being she still was, she did not deserve to see Cassie at all.

Neville was the main reason why she was able to disagree with her sister's beliefs. He kept reminding her of who she truly was and he didn't hate the wolf part of her. He genuinely liked her for everything she was. She felt like she could be herself around him to the fullest bits. It was incredible.

But of course, there was the other voice. It was far less loud and far less present, but it was still there. And she needed an opinion that wasn't Neville's or her sister's to help her completely shut it out, so on Saturday afternoon, she had agreed to meet up with Hermione, Padma and Mandy in Hogsmeade to catch up.

However, she had Professor duties first. Nina had asked for extra potions classes since she was considering a career in potions. Cassie was happy to help her out. Snape had never shown interest in helping people who had extra interest in potions nor had Slughorn. She wanted to be the professor she never had.

"This is O.W.L. level so if it doesn't go right the first try, don't be angry with yourself, please. It's already incredibly that you're doing all this. Don't be too hard on yourself if something doesn't go as planned, okay?" she started before writing down the instructions to the Draught of Peace.

Nina had been a model student ever since she had been able to truly be herself. She needn't worry about her home situation anymore as McGonagall had ensured that she could stay with her best friend's family and that her own family wouldn't be her caretakers anymore. The girl seemed to bloom under these new circumstances and Cassie was glad to see it happen.

"Okay, professor Green," Nina said, writing down the instructions eagerly. "But wait- Doesn't Advanced Potion-Making state that you need to add seven drops of hellebore? You wrote down six."

"Yes, very well noted. However, Madam Pomfrey and I have been experimenting with the potion and we have found six to be far better and safer. If you do seven drops, it may quickly become far too strong and result in an irreversible sleep than when you do six. With six drops the potion is a wee bit lighter but still strong enough to relieve anxiety. The possibilities of it going wrong just go down," she explained.

"Okay, so sometimes you can't trust the books?" Nina asked. Cassie smiled a little. It reminded her of whenever Neville would tell her to stop relying on books so much when taking care of plants.

"Indeed. But most of the time you can. Sometimes you just have to experiment a little," Cassie continued. There was a knock on the door. "Just continue taking over my notes, give me one second." Nina nodded but glanced over at the door, curious to see who it was.

Cassie opened the door, the corners of her mouth curling up right away.  "Hi, Nev," she said and glanced over her shoulder, seeing Nina duck over her notebook quickly again. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you had that extra class with Miss Flume today," he said. She stepped outside and closed the door. He pushed her against it gently, kissing her softly. She giggled against his lips and pulled back again.