The Yule Ball was fast approaching and with each day that passed brought with it an even higher level of tension not only within House Draconis but also throughout Hogwarts itself.
Those who had already managed to secure dates were sitting pretty, however the guys who as of yet had not secured one were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Meanwhile within Draconis.
Each day that passed was one more day before the tournament setup would be coming to an end and revealing just who it was that would be going to the ball as Cassius's date, or worse still leaving the decision up to Cassius himself.
Meanwhile each day caused even great worry for Fleur, her standings in the tournament were low, so low in fact that even if she performed perfectly in the last couple days she couldn't win, unless Cassius himself won and chose her as his date.
But considering who else was in the house, Fleur didn't have high hopes for that to happen.
If she was ranking it just from an emotional perspective.
Cassius was closest to Hermione Granger, who was the most likely viewed person to be chosen should Cassius remain in the lead and retain his right to choose his own date.
~
The most frazzled of all was Harry Potter himself.
While being a Hogwarts champion, Harry was an oddity within Hogwarts.
Almost his entire time enrolled at the school he'd been an outcast no matter how much others tried to intervene.
His talent at Quidditch was overshadowed.
His spellwork sloppy.
His grades abysmal.
Not to mention his social circle which barely existed at all.
Sorted into Slytherin where he was a pariah.
Only managing to secure friendship with Ron due to his reputation and a not so subtle push from Dumbledore.
In the second year, he became an even bigger pariah after it was revealed he was a parseltongue and everyone suspected he was the heir of slytherin.
Now in his fourth year, with his past against him, and Ronald hanging off his coattails offering no real emotional support whatsoever.
Was left virtually alone trying to find a date for the Yule ball while having the social skills of a rock being able to only stare at girls from afar but not talk to them, let alone even look them in the eye while doing so.
Cassius watching his half-twins quite literal meltdown almost felt some pity for the boy and had considered even being kind enough to loan one of his girls to become Harry's date.
But the thought was fleeting, right after he'd had the thought and even considered being so generous Lily Evan reappeared to once more become the bane of his existence.
She had been a constant source of attempted oppression, she was the self appointed coach to her son Harry, but at the same time that meant her other son Cassius was also their competitor.
At first there wasn't much she could do since Cassius was only a champion but there wasn't a ranking.
But now that the first task had already been completed.
And worse yet, Cassius was currently ranked first, while Harry was ranked fourth.
That was the launching point for her offensive.
No one could say for certain where the slam campaign started but, Cassius himself knew.
The should have been Potter Stinks badges, instead read Cassius.
In the halls kids would verbally insult him, either in passing or to his face.
Even bringing up his lineage, and ironically enough even revealing Professor Snape to have been a death eater.
A secret the man had kept during his tenur at Hogwarts for over 10 years, Lily didn't even hesitate to toss the man under the bus if it meant moving her agenda forwards.
As painful as all this might be to a normal child, for Cassius he only saw the attempts at bullying as funny.
Sure he could retaliate, but unless he could prove imperically that it all stemmed from Lily his accusations would ring hollow.
He could launch his own counter smear campaign against Harry… but why?
Bullying is a means to make the aggressor feel good about themselves.
But what if there isn't a response.
It was standard human psycology.
Humans like violence because it feels good to see the terror, the submission of your opponent.
But what if they don't respond.
The target remains silent as if nothing you do affected them even in the slightest?
The act then become moot, they don't feel good about themselves, instead they start to think their wasting their time, or worse yet, they start feeling that its they themselves whose the fool.
Lily hadn't quite gotten there yet.
Her attempts were getting more and more childish which meant she was getting close to the breaking point.
The hardest part was preventing his girls was reacting.
Cassius may find the bullying funny.
But his girls.
They were outraged.
How dare anyone pick on, or make fun of their dear Cassius.
More than a few times he had to stop the girls from starting something over nothing.
It started getting so bad he had to provide a reward system to the girls.
Which might have been their plan all along as it advanced their own agenda of forcing his hand into increasing their relationship intimacy even if only a little.
Each day they resisted lashing out against any of the attempts against him, he was required to reward them with either a five second hug, or a kiss on the cheek.
Though the cheek reward was shifted after the third day to the forhead as the girls almost all tried to pull the bait and switch turning their heads at the last moment to get an accidental liplock.
Sadly to the girls, even though they attempted it, none of them managed to win the grand prize.
Cassius was to experienced to fall for a simple trick like that.
Pretty much from the minute they suggested the kiss on the cheek as an alternate to the hug as a reward he was prepared for it to happen.