**AN** After a helpful review from a reader, I have now added what school year it is to all of the chapters. Hopefully this will make the time jumps easier for you guys. I know it can be confusing, but I didn't know another way to best flesh out Cassandra's character and deliver plot, so apologies. Now please enjoy...hopefully :)
Phoenix: Unsung ~
~ Draco ~
Summer before the 6th Year at Hogwarts
July 9th 1996
Draco stared unseeing into the flames. The warmth of their embers barely felt upon his pale skin. He felt angry, he had since the Order had captured his father at the ministry. It was summer now, and Draco had hoped that being home with his mother, would help soothe the ever deepening pit that was spreading painfully in his chest – he had been left disappointed. Malfoy Manor was not the place it had once been, a cold unfamiliarity had descended upon it. Yes he had his mother, but she did nothing but treat him like some pathetic child, and that meant the only other familiar to turn to was his aunt.
Aunt Bella.
She was as mad as they came, and Draco wasn't ashamed to admit – to himself at least – that he was terrified of her. Her mood was harder to follow that a cryptic riddle, written in runes, and her fits of rage were a scene to make your blood run cold.
Azkaban had not been kind to Bellatrix's mental state. Though his mother had informed him that she had never quite been the whole potion bottle. Draco often found himself staring at her mania, his mind spiralling wildly as he wondered whether that was how his father would one day return? Manic. Skittish. Catching ghosts in every corner?
He shuddered.
Even now Draco could hear her behind him, cackling manically as she spoke in loud tones with his mother. He'd been trying in vain to drown her out, but suddenly at the mention of a familiar name, the sound inciting a sickening sinking sensation deep in the pit of his stomach. Suddenly he could have done no more to listen.
"Oh Cissy, you should have seen the little brat's face!" Bellatrix giggled, pouring herself another heavy goblet of wine. "The poor lamb had no clue about her father. I mean, how Nathaniel and the old coot kept it hidden from her all this time, I have no idea!" She laughed again, throwing her head back, her laughter echoing harshly off the surrounding walls.
Narcissa Malfoy's eyes flashed dangerously, clearly not in the mood for joviality. "Yes, Bellatrix, but perhaps if you hadn't been so intent on revisiting the past with Cassandra Dumbledore, Lucius might not be locked away now to rot in Azkaban."
Sensing her sister's resentment, Bellatrix cooled instantly. Her tone clipped.
"Azkaban was good enough for me for 11 years, sweet sister. Though yours and Lucius' visits were always a lovely distraction." She smiled sardonically, flopping down into a chair, her tongue thick with sarcasm.
As far as Draco was aware, his parents had never once stepped foot in Azkaban to see his aunt. A slight she clearly hadn't forgiven, and suddenly Bellatrix laughed again.
"Lucius should be grateful, Cissy. The Dark Lord would have dealt him a far grander punishment for his failings at the ministry."
"Failings you both shared." Narcissa pointed out, taking a large gulp from her own wine. "Yet here you sit, drinking my husband's wine, eating his food, all whilst he suffers alone at the hands of the Dementors. Lucius was diligent as always, he didn't allow himself to get distracted. If you and Rabastan hadn't gotten so involved with tormenting Nathaniel's daughter, then perhaps the mission would have been a success!"
Bellatrix jumped up from her chair.
"You take that back!" She hissed harshly, furiously brandishing her wand. "You take that back now, Cissy! I would never betray the Dark Lord! I did not get distracted! The girl had to be dealt with. You know what she is. It's likely down to her that The Order showed up at all."
Draco turned slowly away from the fire. Glancing briefly at his mother, he lightly brushed his knuckles against his jacket pocket, hoping to appear indifferent.
"The Dumbledore girl is irritating at the best of times, Aunt Bella, just like her Muggle loving grandfather." He said quietly, trying to keep his tone as even as he could. "I have no doubt that whatever ever Aunt Bella had to do, mother, the girl had it coming. She should have kept her dirty little half-blood nose out."
Narcissa Malfoy gazed at her son, her face impassive as always, having learnt long ago the mistake of wearing one's heart on their sleeve. She said nothing, merely turned her knowing eyes to the fire, her questions too dangerous to give voice to.
Bellatrix smiled. "Exactly, Sweetie." She purred, lightly pressing her full lips to his cheek. "Such a clever boy."
He forced a tight smile. "It's annoying really, Aunt Bella. I've hardly heard anything about what happened at the ministry. Mother won't share, and they kept everything very hushed up at school."
He frowned. It was true. Draco had been so filled with rage for the golden trio, and the rest of their snivelling groupies, including Cassie, that he had heard nothing really of the facts of what had taken place at the ministry in June. All he'd known, all he still knew, was that he wanted to avenge the wrongs that had been done to his father. Starting with precious Potter.
"Poor thing." Bellatrix cooed, oblivious to his thoughts. "Cissy you really mustn't wrap him in cotton wool. He'll be of age next year, a man by any standards. There's no good in keeping him in the dark now. What if our enemies were to use this to their advantage?"
Narcissa said nothing and Bellatrix grinned triumphantly.
"Come Draco, come sit with Auntie Bella. I shall tell you what happened with the Dumbledore girl."
She lead him by the hand excitedly to the couch, hastily pulling him down beside her, her dark eyes alight with a sudden fever, as she faced him with a fiercely elated smile.
"The Dark Lord told me it was the only thing that went right about the mission – what I'd discovered. He'd had his suspicions yes, but he'd had yet to confirm them. You see, we hadn't expected there to be anyone else, the others and I, and when the Dumbledore girl – Cassandra, is it? – hit the shelves with a jinx, exploding all those little glass balls, well, it all got a little mad! Potter and the others, they were able to flee, you see. Your father made us split up to look for them. A sensible suggestion, I was surprised at the time. " She cackled, hitting him playfully in the shoulder. "Quite unlike dear Lucius."
Draco nodded hesitantly, struggling to keep up with her erratic train of thought, and suddenly she was talking again.
"Rabastan and I found the girl alone, hiding behind some cabinet thing, she was. The Department of Mysteries is such a maze, it was no surprise that they all lost each other – the little boys and girls." Bellatrix added knowingly, flicking her wand toward the half empty wine bottle. "I knew who she was instantly of course, she's the spitting image of her filthy Muggle mother. Scum." She spat on the floor. "Nathaniel always had a weakness for pretty things. It didn't matter that they were filth."
Draco stared, unnerved by the familiarity in his aunt's voice. Hadn't his mother had it too? Curiosity spurred him on.
"You talk as though you know Nathaniel Dumbledore personally?"
Bellatrix giggled, a confused smile gracing her once beautiful features.
"Of course, sweetie. He was a Death Eater, after all." She leaned toward him in her seat, a heavy frown furrowing her brow. "Didn't you know?" Bellatrix glared exasperated over her shoulder at her sister. "What have you and Lucius been telling him all these years, Cissy? Does the boy know nothing? Yes, Nathaniel was one of us. The Dark Lord was most pleased when he joined our ranks, though the man had no stomach for getting his hands a little dirty." She finished cruelly, shrugging off her boots. "Weak. I always knew he wasn't to be trusted, his heart was far too soft."
"Then why did he join?" Draco asked, unable to stop himself, half in shock.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "Daddy issues, of course. Never quite forgave old Dumby for leaving him with his little Muggle mother – or some other overtly sentimental reason like that – we never got the whole story. Should have been no surprised when he went off with the other Muggle, really – traitorous snake."
Her tone dropped, and in her hand her wand buzzed excitedly, wild sparks dancing eagerly off it's tip.
"He'll pay of course." She finished happily, dropping back onto the cushions behind her. "The Dark Lord will make sure of it. Painfully I hope, perhaps he'll make the little girl watch?"
"Does Cass – the Dumbledore girl – know?" Draco wondered, unable to believe what he was hearing. She had never said, but then his mother and father had never said, not once, not even a whisper. She couldn't know. Could she?
"The girl knows now." Bellatrix grinned, swishing her wand idly in the air. "Her pretty little face was such a sweet picture. No doubt held Nathaniel on some kind of pedestal. All that trust, all that devotion, gone. Gone the second she realised I couldn't have been lying." She laughed madly again, awkwardly clutching at her sides. "So pathetic."
Draco gazed at her grimly, but she was too far gone in her mirth to notice. He cleared his throat. "Was that why the Dark Lord was happy? Because Cassandra found out about her father?"
Bellatrix looked up. "Hm? Oh no, no. Not that. No not that, sweetie. I discovered something far more interesting. Something that despite her father's and grandfather's best efforts, she had been unable to hide in that room."
Draco frowned. "What was so special about the room?"
"It was where the Unspeakables do all their questioning. The Room of Truth. A dangerous place for anyone with secrets, and hers just came spilling out. Like blood from a wound."
Draco felt his mouth go dry.
"What was her secret?"
Bellatrix grinned.
"That little Cassandra Dumbledore, little disgusting half-blood – is a Seer."
R&R!
Sorry it's been so long guys. I've not been well. But I'm back now. Hopefully to regular weekly updates. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know in the review box if you have the time. I do try to reply to all the reviews I can.
Take care :)
