Chapter 9

James wrung his hands nervously as he watched Madam Pomfrey work over Cassie. She was frowning and flustered as she checked her wound.

"Will she be alright?" James asked. "What is the wound from? Is it as bad as it looks? Who-?"

"Mr. Potter!" The medi-witch exclaimed. "If you cannot give me time to work, I'll have to ask you to step outside."

"Sorry." He said sheepishly.

Suddenly, Cassie was dragged out of consciousness with an earsplitting scream of pain. James leapt up and Madam Pomfrey rushed to her side. Cassie arched off the cot, her face contorted in pain. Sweat beaded on her forehead.

"Mr. Potter, would you please get the Headmistress?"

"No need, Poppy." Headmistress McGonagall swept into the infirmary. "Can you tell what it's from?"

"It's some kind of dark magic. Extremely powerful. It's poisoning her from the inside. I don't know-."

"James!" Cassie suddenly screamed and opened her eyes. "James!"

James was at her side in an instant, letting her grab onto his hand. "Cass."

"It hurts." She looked at him in fright.

"I know. I can feel it as well." It was a dull throbbing on the edges of his brain. He pushed her damp hair off her face.

She was so muddled with pain that she kept switching between mental and physical speech. "It." Was him. "I found." Him near the Shrieking. "Shack." She was gasping and writhing from the pain. "I'm holding." Back the pain. I'll protect. "You from it."

James covered her hands with his. "You have to fight this, Cassie. You're magic is pure and strong. Fight back!"

His magic is. "So strong." She gasped.

"Cassie, you can fight it. I know you can. Just use the magic. Remember when you healed my broken leg and both my broken arms in that terrible Quidditch accident? And your father threatened to have my father fired if you got hurt because you used too much of your power." He laughed weakly.

I've. "Never healed myself." She gasped, before her eyes rolled back and she slumped against the cot. Her fierce grip on his hands loosened.

For a full day, Madam Pomfrey worked on Cassie. She tried everything within her knowledge to help the girl. However, nothing seemed to work. Every ounce of the medi-witch's magic only seemed to strengthen the dark curse poisoning her body.

James spent every waking and sleeping moment by Cassie's side. Lily and Rose stopped by as often as they could, but it was James who was there through it all. McGonagall allowed him to skip his classes and she had Albus bring him most of his work.

Bradley Wood burst into the infirmary an hour before the first Quidditch game of the season: Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.

"Potter!" He cried. "What are you doing? The game is in a bloody hour!" He stopped whatever else he was going to say when he saw the small bed.

Cassie was pale. There were dark circles under her eyes. The wound was covered, but the dark veins had spread down her entire left arm, across her chest, and up her neck. It had almost reached her heart. It wasn't visible, but it covered nearly her entire back as well.

James looked haggard and exhausted. He was stretched on the cot beside Cassie, one arm over her waist. He was half dangling off the bed, one arm and one leg hung onto the floor. He was fast asleep with his nose pushed against Cassie's temple.

Bradley sighed when he saw them. He tapped his broom against his toe before turning right back around and walking out of the infirmary.

James woke to something tugging on his earlobe. He opened his eyes and found Cassie's dilated eyes looking at him.

"Cassie. How long have you been up?"

She pressed her fingers against his lips. There were tears in her eyes. "I think I'm dying, James."

"No, you're not!" James said fiercely.

She pressed herself into his arms, resting her burning forhead against his collarbone. "I can feel it creeping towards my heart. It grows stronger every single day."

"You aren't going to die."

She shut her eyes briefly and a couple of tears leaked from her eyes. "We won the Quidditch match."

"We missed it?"

She nodded. "But we always beat the Hufflepuffs." Her teeth began to chatter. "What a l-load of b-blubbering incomp-pentents."

James started to pull away but she nestled into his warmth.

"It's so cold and you're so warm." She murmured.

He could feel her muscles tense suddenly.

A hiss burst from between her teeth. "Fuck."

"It hurts." It wasn't a question. He pulled away from her, ignoring her pleas and soft whimpers of pain. "Madam Pomfrey!" He burst into her small office.

"Mr. Potter." She exclaimed. "What's wrong?"

He didn't know that he looked half crazed; his hair was tousled and his eyes wide. "We need to call Mrs. Malfoy." He didn't add that they should have called her days and days ago.

Roxanne Malfoy appeared in Hogwarts by the Floo System only fifteen minutes later. She wore a tight black outfit beneath a black cloak. Her long hair was pulled into a high ponytail. She had wand tucked into her boot as she did when she was young. She stepped swiftly through the corridors; her ferocity scared off all of those she passed.

"Where is my daughter?" She exploded into the infirmary. As usual when her emotions were overwhelmingly strong, her French accent was much more prominent than usual.

"Miss Garniar." Madam Pomfrey looked relieved.

Roxanne glared at her. "I'm a Malfoy now, have been for years. Where is Cassie?"

"She's here, Mrs. Malfoy." James spoke from Cassie's bedside.

Roxanne rushed to her daughter's side. Cassie was pale and thin and sweating. Every line of her body was tense. Roxanne pulled the sheets down and looked pointedly at James.

He looked at her with the same amount of strength as the older woman. "I'm not leaving her."

"Fine, be a stubborn ass like your father." He heard her mutter.

Roxanne took a hold of the corner of Cassie's bandage and then tore it off. Cassie arched off of the bed with a scream. Roxanne swore at the state of the wound.

"Why the bloody hell wasn't I contacted earlier?" She shouted at Madam Pomfrey. "She's on death's doorstep!"

Madam Pomfrey looked so shaken that she had to leave the room.

Roxanne tore Cassie's shirt so that she could see the full extent of the damage. She looked at James. "This is going to hurt her terribly. I need you to hold her down."

James shifted so that he was able to hold down Cassie's arms and legs. Roxanne grit her teeth before pushing her hand onto Cassie's wound. James winced at the scream Cassie let out. Roxanne shook her head slightly.

"For Merlin's sake."

Gold light flared around Roxanne's finger tips and then billowed out to cover Cassie's entire body. James shut his eyes against the luminosity of it. He felt Cassie tense under his hands. She writhed but he was there to keep her still.

He didn't know how long he and Roxanne were there.

But when she was done, Roxanne fell onto the floor. James moved to help her to her feet but she shook her head. She leaned forward until her forehead rested against the side of the bed.

"Maybe two more hours, and she would have been dead." James heard her whisper.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Malfoy." He said as he fell into a chair across from Cassie's bed.

"It isn't your fault, dear."

Cassie began to stir. "Mommy?"

"Would you-?"

James stood. Roxanne didn't have to finish her sentence. He was out the door quickly. He found Lily and Rose waiting anxiously outside. He slid against the wall outside the infirmary and began to tell them.

Cassie was drawn out of consciousness by the familiar touch of her mother's gold magic. A part of her was bewildered; how on earth was her mother here? She thought that maybe she had died and this was her last comfort.

"Mommy?"

"Cassie." Someone squeezed her hand.

Cassie opened her eyes to find her mother there. "Mum!" She sat up swiftly, nearly knocking her head against Roxanne's.

Roxanne put her hands on Cassie's shoulders. "Careful. You were close to death just a few hours ago."

"How are you here?" Cassie blurted. "I thought you had a job in Portugal this week!"

Roxanne raised her eyebrow. "You think Harry wouldn't let me come here and heal my dying daughter? I do believe your friend, James, convinced Pomfrey to call me. I don't see why they didn't call me at once; that was extremely dark magic." Her face darkened. "Who did this to you, Cassie?"

Cassie stared into her mother's eyes; so clear, so blue, and so strong. So like her own. She trusted her mother with her life, no matter the fights between them. "It was grandfather." Cassie whispered.

Roxanne's expressions flickered from shocked to confused to disbelieving to sadness. "Your only living grandfather is one of Azkaban's highest security prisoners."

Cassie locked her mother's hand in an iron grip. "He must have escaped." She said in earnest.

Roxanne rubbed her jaw. "He's still there, Cassie."

"How do you know?" Cassie cried. "He attacked me. He almost killed me and you're saying he's still in Azkaban? Who was it if not him?"

"I don't know Cassie." Roxanne reached to the table next to Cassie's bed. She dropped a paper in her daughter's lap.

Cassie read over the blaring headline.

DANGEROUS CRIMINAL PETITIONING FOR EARLY RELEASE.

There was a picture of a ragged Lucius Malfoy on the cover.

"Early release?" Cassie cried. "He's supposed to be in there for life!"

Roxanne nodded. "He is. He won't win the case. He's a Death Eater for crying out loud."

"Dad's a Death Eater." Cassie snapped. "And he's one of the best Auror the Ministry's got!"

"That's different."

"Is it?" Cassie asked in a voice that was hard and icy. She swung her legs over the bed.

"Cassie, you were just healed!"

Cassie swayed. "James!" She cried.

Roxanne was only somewhat surprised when James burst through the door and was at her daughter's side in an instant. His arm was around her waist, supporting her weight. Roxanne could see the charge between them. She stood.

"Cassie!" She scolded.

Cassie looked at her mother and looked down at her feet sheepishly. "I didn't mean to. It was an accident!"

"Your father specifically told you not to make the bond!" Roxanne was furious. "And by accident? You didn't even give him a choice! You half hate the boy!"

James' arm tightened around Cassie, dragging her closer to him. "Mrs. Malfoy, it's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Roxanne burst. "You don't understand the extent of this! How do you think this will affect your life? Your spouses won't exactly like that the two of you know each other better than anybody! You have to live like this for the rest of your lives!"

James felt Cassie grow angry. Cassie.

Cassie lashed out at her mother through the bond they hand. You don't know what you talk about. What I do with my mind is none of you business.

Roxanne's hands curled into fists. You are my only daughter; what you do is entirely my business! You hate him and you don't regret bonding with him? What is wrong-?

Cassie's mind was icy. Don't lie to yourself, Mum. You know very well that I don't hate him entirely. He's my best friend.

Learn how to hide the bond. Roxanne's mentality was weary. Your boyfriends and eventual husband will not take well to it.

"How would you know?" Cassie suddenly shouted. "The only people you've bonded with are your husband and you're child!"

"Cassie." James said in a low voice.

She whipped her head around to stare at him.

"You've been sick for days, let's go get something to eat." He said gently.

Roxanne watched with interest how Harry Potter's son was able to calm her unpredictable storm of a daughter.

Cassie sighed, leaning against him slightly. "Fine." She turned to her mother. "Thank you for healing me."

Roxanne stepped up to her and hugged her daughter. "Be careful. I'll have your father send you an owl."

"I'm always careful, Mum." Cassie said.

James and Roxanne laughed shortly at the same time.

Roxanne kissed her daughter's cheek. "I love you."

"I know." Cassie said with a small smile.

James elbowed her. She scowled at him.

"I love you too, Mum."

Roxanne watched as her daughter walked out of the infirmary with her arm slung over James' shoulder. She sighed and rubbed her temple, subtly healing the headache seeping into her head. She swirled her cloak over her shoulders before walking towards the Headmistress's office to have a very serious conversation with her former Professor.