Chapter Text
Cassie Grey is certain she must be the smartest wixen in Hogwarts. Don’t get it twisted, this certainty has nothing to do with classes and grades, it has everything to do with one Harry Potter. When his name flew impossibly out of the Goblet of Fire, only a single look made it very clear to Cassie that the Gryffindor was terrified. Apparently, she was the only one to notice. The rest of the school has turned their backs on their supposed Savior, attempting frequent hexes in the hall behind his back, while the House of the Brave are celebrating that a proper took their rightful place as a Champion. Even Ron Weasley is shunning his supposed best friend. Cassie is baffled.
As a Ravenclaw, and a quiet one at that, she doesn’t usually pay much attention to the dramatic life of one Boy-Who-Lived, but everything else was just stories. Rumors. This is a Ministry sanctioned death tournament happening right in front of her. So Cassie notices. She notices and watches and ends up in front of harry Potting sitting in the library.
The boy-hero blinks up at her with emerald eyes and Cassie flushes at how odd she must appear.
“I believe you.” Is what she ends up blurting out. Maybe she needs to rethink that ‘smartest in Hogwarts’ title already. Potter sucks in a breath, expression reflecting his shock. Cassie ducks her head but straightens her posture. Might as well go all in.
“They’re all idiots for not seeing how terrified you where at the Choosing. Even more so to not consider how difficult it would be to fool an ancient artifact like the Goblet.” Cassie flicks her eyes back to Potter and sees the way his shoulders slump.
“You believe me?” His voice is probably smaller than he meant, but the relief is palpable. She hesitantly draws out a chair, but sits when Potter doesn’t protest.
“Yeah, I believe you. Oh, ah, Cassie Grey. Nice to actually meet you.” Cassie jerks her hand out in greeting and Potter takes it.
“Harry Potter. You’re in Ravenclaw?” Unconsciously, Cassie tugs on her tie. She nods.
“Yeah. If, um. If you aren’t opposed, I would be happy to offer my assistance. For the ah, tasks. Researching them, that is. There’s nothing against fellow students helping the Champions. I-uh… I checked.” She doesn’t meet Potter’s eyes, holding her breath.
“Really? You actually want to help me?” He asks incredulously. Cassie bites her lip, but nods.
“You’re a fourteen year old student being set up against three seventeen year olds in a tournament originally canceled because of its increasingly high death toll. Even if I didn’t believe you, I would still want to help.” When she finally meets Potter’s gaze, Cassie’s surprised at the wetness gathering in them. He draws in a shuddering breath but grants her a tremulous smile.
“Thank you.” The earnest way whispers the words makes her blush, but the witch still returns the smile.
“My pleasure.”
~
They spend the rest of the evening in the library, Grey tugging out books on past tournaments and, surprisingly, the rulebook. (“Where did you find this?” “The Ravenclaw private bookshelves are very intuitive.”) they finally stop around dinner time, buried in dusty books and parchment. Harry stretches, wincing at the resulting pops from his spine.
“Ugh, my brain’s melted and I still have a Charms essay to write.” He looks over at his unexpected companion and snorts. Grey, at some point, decided her open book would make the perfect pillow and currently has planted face first onto the pages. A groan lets him know she’s at least awake.
“Why anyone thought setting up a fucking death tournament between schools, let alone bringing it back after it was finally shut down, was a good idea I will never understand. At least Muggles have codes of ethics and the like.” The shaggy-haired witch finally rises from her book pillow and shoves it away from her with obvious distaste.
“Hermione’s always going on about wixen lacking common sense. Maybe she’s on to something.” Harry jokes. That perks Grey up and she tilts her head, tawny eyes far away.
“I can see why. Muggles don’t rely on something so all encompassing like magic that can fix their problems with just the flick of a wrist. It would definitely explain why they’re so innovative as well.” Grey comes back to herself with a blink before grimacing at their piles of books. “Did all these heavy books at least give you some ideas about the Tournament?” She asks. Harry can’t help his delighted smile.
“Definitely. I at the very least I now have an outline on what to expect.” And it’s true. Before he was just desperately looking up different defensive and offensive spells whether he could feasibly do them or not, only knowing the Task will be a “Test of courage” isn’t nearly enough to go off of. But when Grey started looking with him, she immediately changed their focus to past tournaments and the aforementioned rulebook. Now, lion and raven are confident the First Task will at least revolve around a creature being the main obstacle the Champions have to defeat as all past tournaments followed that logic. And even though Harry doesn’t know what creature or how far the officials will go to pit them against it, he know feels settled enough to not be constantly panicking.
Grey returns his smile with a pleased one.
“Better than nothing, right? There’s a starting point now.” Harry nods and then helps his surprise partner tidy up and return their books.
They’re walking to the Great Hall when Grey asks, “I would have though Granger would be helping you with research, seems right up her alley.” And Harry’s good mood takes a hit.
“It is but turns out she’s not as good of a friend as I thought she was. Neither of my friends are, apparently.” He can’t help the bitterness from seeping into his voice. Grey furrows her brow.
“She doesn’t believe you?” Harry scoffs.
“She does but wants me to forgive Ron for being jealous enough not to. I refuse and so she’s throwing her lot in with the prat while trying to engineer ways for us to talk. I’ve been avoiding both of them.” Harry’s scowling by the time he’s done.
They walk along in silence for a bit before Grey speaks up again.
“They’re both blind idiots. In fact,” She sweeps an arm out, “this whole school is full of blind idiots. Maybe magic just makes wixen dumb all around.” Harry stop his snort of amusement, good mood returning. They finally make it to the Great Hall where a deluge of whispers and covert glares welcome Harry. Grey must catch his somber gaze as the thought of sitting alone at the Gryffindor table again makes skipping dinner look better and better because she hesitantly leans in to whisper.
“Do you want to sit with me?” He perks up before remembering the Ravenclaw table is right next to the Slytherin one. He sighs.
“Better not, the Slytherins would just harass me the whole time.” The sight of Malfoy makes him wince.
“Well, I could sit with you.” Harry turns wide eyes to the blushing girl next to him.
“You really want too? People will talk.” Grey shrinks into herself before abruptly straightening, a determined glint to her eyes.
“We’ve already established they’re all idiots. They can talk all they want.” A rush of heady gratitude and awe fills Harry’s chest and he beams for the first time since Halloween.
“Well come on then.”
The whispers rise in volume, eyes following, as Grey trails behind him to his isolated end of Gryffindor table and sits firmly across from him.
“Are you excited for the first Hogsmeade weekend?” And that’s how Harry’s dinner goes. Instead of bolting down food with his skin crawling with all the hostile stares boring into him, he and Grey spend the meal discussing Hogsmeade and classes. It’s here that Harry is annoyed to discover he’s dealing with Professor Trelawny for nothing (“Why do they even off Divination if those that can actually See won’t be taking it?” “Probably for the Muggleborns and -raised with the Gift who don’t know better.”). When it finally comes for them to separate, Harry feels the best he’s felt since Dumbledore called out his name and it’s all thanks to the Ravenclaw witch next to him.
“See you tomorrow, Potter.”
“Call me Harry.”
“…Harry. You can call me Cassie then.” Harry matches Grey’s – Cassie’s – beam, and waves.
“Good night, Cassie.”
“Good night, Harry.”
Even Hermione’s invasive questioning and Ron’s dark glare fail to dampen the glowing warmth in his chest.
~
When Cassie walks into Ravenclaw Tower, the entire Common Room stops. She blinks, bewildered, at the numerous eyes now fixed on her.
“Getting cozy with the Boy-Who-Lived, Grey?” Sue Li sneers from the couches. Cassie’s chest seizes and she wants nothing more than to hunch down into herself to become smaller. Being the unwanted daughter of a prominent family, attention being directed at her has never been anything but something to fear. But Cassie remembers how scared Po- Harry looked on Halloween; how miserable he seemed sitting all alone on meals; how desperate he was today in the library surrounded by books on Defense.
They’re all idiots anyway.
She keeps her head high.
“I offered my assistance in research for the First Task. He needs all the help he can get.” Someone else snorts; Terry Boot.
“What; to win?” Carrie shoves as much disdain as she can into her glare. Boot even flinches.
“To survive. He’s a child forced to participate in a death tournament with wixen three years older than him. I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be smarter than this.” And she turns and ascends the spiral staircase to the girls’ dorms, back straight.
~
The next morning, Cassie walks into the Great Hall for her usual early breakfast, an interesting book on magical serpents her personal bookshelf had proudly displayed when she woke up. She glances over to the Gryffindor table more because her mind is on Harry then because she expects to see him; however, much to her surprise the recognizable mop of dark, unkempt hair belonging to her new friend is sat slumped at the almost empty table.
Wasting no time at all, Cassie hurries over and slips into the seat across from him.
“You’re up early.” Harry jolts, obviously still half asleep, and blinks heavily-lidded eyes at her.
“Don’t have to listen to my housemates.” He slurs in response. The boy-hero stabs blurrily at some eggs on his plate while Cassie looks on in mild amusement.
“Well, if you’re up for it after breakfast we can spend the time before classes looking for a place you can practice in.” That manages to grab her friend’s attention enough for him to perk up.
“Practice?”
“Researching can only bring you so far. If you can’t perform the spells, knowing them won’t do you much good.” Harry snorts.
“’S not very Ravenclaw of you, Cassie.” He posits with a sly smirk. Cassie makes a face at him.
“Practical knowledge is just as important as theoretical knowledge. Just because I can recognize when one is useless without the other doesn’t mean I would forego the knowledge at all.” She comes out of her prim lecture to an amused smile scrunching Harry’s cheeks. Her own grow hot with a blush and she ducks back to her food.
“We could use an empty classroom.”
“Eh, we need a large space so you can work on active movement as well as strategic movement. Especially against a living creature, staying static or freezing could get you killed.” A silence falls as they eat and ponder. Well, Cassie is eating. When she notices Harry being oddly still, the witch looks up to see what’s wrong.
Her friend is staring down at his plate as if his eggs had betrayed him by actually being Grindylow eggs. Intrigued and slightly worried, Carrie probes for his attention. “Alright Harry?”
He glances up before surreptitiously looking around while leaning in close. Cassie follows suite, worry growing.
“Remember the Chamber of Secrets in second year?”