Did I Just See A Ghost or What!! (Cass)

[Solitaire Keighley H7]

Solitaire couldn’t believe that she and her mom were actually walking through Hogsmeade together, shopping. It was the first time she and her mom had been shopping together since Taire’s first year. This day had been planned oddly enough by her mother. Arcadia had owled Taire earlier in the week and asked her if she would be able to meet her in Hogsmeade through the weekend. Taire naturally agreed but wondered what her mother could be up to. It wasn’t Taire’s birthday, and that wasn’t something Taire wanted to be reminded of, her last birthday hadn’t gone well at all. Especially when Taire’s muggle friend Dominic had brought her a present to her house. Was it her father’s birthday? Taire’s mind wondered terribly trying to figure out what her mother could want to meet her in Hogsmeade for, up until today. Today, Taire just looked at her mom trying to figure out if she may be under some kind of spell for it wouldn’t be like her to want Taire to meet her in Hogsmeade. Arcadia had said that she wanted to take Taire to buy some new robes, but that only confused Taire more. She had been buying her own robes now for two years. She didn’t need her mother’s help with that anymore, but Taire decided to pacify her mother’s reason and let her mother buy her a few new robes. They were out now looking at other wizarding things and Taire’s mother barely speaking, except to ask Taire if she needed something as they passed each store.
Taire’s curiosity finally got the best of her, and she couldn’t help but to ask. “Mother, what was really your reason behind this trip? Since my sorting into Hufflepuff, neither you nor my own father has wanted to have much to do with me and now you want to go shopping with me as if for the last five years I haven’t been ignored by you.” Taire didn’t mean to sound so hateful or disrespectful about it, but she needed to know why her mother suddenly wanted to have more to do with her. This had been sudden that her mother wanted to take her shopping and Taire knew her mother had to have more than one reason for bringing her to Hogsmeade in the middle of the school year like this. Even Taire’s Christmas presents had lately been owls that included some money so that she could “Go buy herself something nice” as her parents always said in the owls. Taire watched her mother as they walked and waited for an answer from her. Needless to say as Arcadia’s mouth opened it wasn’t an explanation that came out of her mouth. “Merlin’s Beard!” Taire turned to look quickly again at her mother, and without hesitation asked, “What’s wrong? What happened? Did I do something?” Taire kept rambling until her mother cupped her hand over her mouth. “Solitaire, I think I have just seen a ghost. I could have sworn I just saw Daniel Blackfire going into that store over there.” Arcadia whispered just a bit loudly. Taire’s mouth dropped and she instantly thought of Cassie and Pyro. How would Cass feel to know that her father was still alive? She had sworn that her father was dead for years, but her mother would have known Daniel as they were around the same age, and her mother remembered what happened with the Blackfire family. She had told Solitaire about it as soon as she mentioned that one of her closest friends was a Blackfire. “Umm.. Mom, I really need to get back to Hogwarts and tell Cassie this. Are you sure it was him?” “It was either a ghost, Solitaire, or Daniel Blackfire. It looked far too solid to be a ghost, so it must have been the real thing. And you’re right; Cassandra needs to know about this.” Arcadia responded. Taire and her mother gathered the stuff that they wanted and Arcadia headed back to the castle gates with Taire.

Returning to the castle gates, Arcadia bid Taire goodbye and apperated home. Taire left right after her mother disappeared and ran up to the castle. She had to get to Cassie, she had to be the first one to tell her, Taire couldn’t take a chance of someone else seeing what Arcadia and she saw and getting the news back to Cassie before she could tell her. Taire searched the castle over, asking everyone she saw if they had seen Cassandra. She finally found her, and wasn’t sure how to tell Cassie. “Umm.. We’re best friends right Cass, and if you had to hear any bad news and I knew it, you would want me to be the first to tell you right?” Taire couldn’t wait for Cass to reply. “My mother and I were in Hogsmeade, and my mother just out of the blue stopped talking, and pointed to a man walking into a store across the street from us. When I asked her who it was and why we were whispering, she told me that it was your father.” “Cass, could it be possible?”Although Taire knew deep down that Cass probably wouldn't believe her, she had to ask if it were possible. Taire wanted Cass to talk to her, but she realized that she wasn’t giving Cassie a chance to speak. Closing her mouth, she stood looking at Cass and waited for her to speak.

((Wow! That's the first post in just about a year. Dang. Totally not Taire-ish, but that's how she wanted it to be. Hope you like it, and if any changes need to be made to it, you know how to reach me))

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

"What the -? Get away from her you two! Ten points from Slytherin!" Cass yelled in a rage to the second year Slytherin boys who were huddled so evily around a crying first year Hufflepuff. The boys looked at the older Gryffindor girl and began to fumble excuses to her. "No, no, stop talking! Ten points for using magic in the corridors. Ten points each." The boys looked flabbergasted as they now both realized that she had stripped Slytherin house of twenty points. In a snoot, they both shot their noses in the air, and walked off in a huff. Cass rushed over to the younger girl and helped her off the floor. "Are you all right? Can I get you anyway? Oh, it looks like you scraped your knee. You need to go to the hospital wing." The girl fumbled out of Cass' helping hands trying to back away. The girl only shook her head and ran from the girl. Cass sighed. "I was only trying to be of a little help." Prefect duty was always bothersome. It always seemed she couldn't help, or over help in this case, enough. She always wondered if she was just as much of a handful as the younger students who were know in her charge.

The young Gryffindor Prefect pulled a quill out of her robes and a pad of paper to log the altercation in her Prefect's report. It seemed that her reports were getting longer and longer these days. Cass had gotten a reputation as a strict prefect, and with good reason. She took her duties seriously; never letting anything slide that she might catch students getting into. Sometimes she thought she did her job to well. She could almost picture McGonogall's face tonight when she turned in her report. "Miss Blackfire, sometimes you could give some of your fellow students a break."

"She's over there." Cass turned her head to the voice and saw a shadow hand on the wall pointing in her direction. Running feet headed in her direction. Confused, she stowed her pad and quill quickly. She was surprised to see Solitaire Kieghley rounding the corner. Taire nearly barreled into Cassandra. Taire was in a panic talking a million miles a minute. "What?! My father? Calm down, Taire. My father died in a muggle hospital almost three years ago. I saw him." Cass gripped the girl's arms with almost all of her strength. Questions were flitting around her head. Well, she had been lied to about everything else with her family? Why not this? "Taire, it's impossible. I was there. The doctors said his cancer was terminal. I don't see how he could survive that. Even wizards are susceptible to muggle diseases."

Cass chewed her lip. It was a nervous habit of hers. Could it be possible? "Have you told Pyro yet? Who else saw him? Where was he? Are you sure you didn't make a mistake? My cousin looks a lot like Dad. All the Blackfire men carry about the same features. I need to know you didn't make some sort of mistake."