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Important chapter ahead, enjoy :)

The Only One He Ever Feared

The Death Eater vanished much like he had appeared - making it as if he had never quite been there - and left me and Luna panting from the scare.

"You shouldn't have done that," she told me, shaking her head slightly. "That was an Unforgivable Curse!"

She was right, of course, but I squared my shoulders with a feeling swaying somewhere between affection and a defiant sense of responsibility. "And if I had to kill them all to get you out of here," I said, and meant it. "I would do it."

Weary of meeting yet another foe, we proceeded slower this time, but finally found a door that would allow us to escape - or at least so we hoped. I sent Luna through first and locked the door behind us. I almost missed her little, astonished 'Oh!'.
It was the chamber with the stone arch that we had briefly visited before. Before I knew it, Luna had started descending the steps towards the arch.

"Do you hear them?" she asked softly.

"Luna," I said. "We're clearly in the wrong place, let's go on-"

Even as she walked on - and I followed, afraid that something terrible might happen still - another door flew open and Harry toppled in, flying down the stairs more than anything else.
Luna shrieked and ran to meet him, but my eyes had found something a lot worse: the Death Eaters that had followed him, Bellatrix Lestrange leading the group.

"Potter, your race is run," Lucius Malfoy announced as he, too, walked down the stairs, pulling of his mask in the process. "You see, there are ten of us and only three of you."

I had reached Harry and Luna in that very moment and turned my wand at Malfoy. "Not another step."

He sneered. "The Dark Lord cares more about the prophecy than about your health, girl."

Tell you what, he was probably right. I'm even past taking it bad on you - there is so much to take badly, and I am exhausted. He was not sure, though, I could feel it. Much as always, Malfoy was making things up as he went along.

"You may be right or you may be wrong," I said. "Do you really want to be the one who finds out?"

"Foolish girl!" This time, it was Bellatrix who spoke and she did it with more conviction. "You know nothing of the Dark Lord-"

"I just sent one of your friends to him," I shot back. "So I guess we'll know soon enough."

She blanched, much to my satisfaction, probably because they had not done very well so far. They never do, though, do they? Sure, they cause some mayhem, but do they ever actually accomplish anything? You could have done better than them, frankly.

"Cassie," Potter said behind me. "It's fine... Let the others go and I'll give it to you-"

"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM!"
Neville Longbottom had apparently picked himself up somewhere behind our backs and was bolting downstairs. He was bleeding profusely from the nose.

Lestrange's eyes were gleaming even more madly. She had whipped her wand before anyone knew what happened and next thing I knew, Neville was writhing on the floor, screaming his pain.

"Avada Kedavra!"
My curse sailed past Bellatrix' face, but barely, as intended. She whirled, her upper lip curled back into an ugly sneer.

"Why, you dare-"

"Don't think I wouldn't do it," I said, this time aiming straight at her. "Because I will."

Here is how it went: she hated me for the rest of her miserable life, and I would not have it any other way. Sometimes, I wish I had done it that day. I could not have made myself more unpopular with your crowd, either way, and maybe that would have at least earned me some respect.

"Cassie," Harry begged, but I just shook my head. Call it pride or foolishness or just mad hope, but I thought we stood a better chance if we did not back down. You are aware of that particular streak of mine, of course.

Above us, two doors burst suddenly open.
Spells rained down at once, before I could realize what had happened. I even recognized some of our rescuers: Sirius Black looked slightly cleaner than he had in the pictures from years ago, and Professor Lupin, in turn, looked more worn-down.

Harry grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away, finally breaking the tense stance. Neville was crawling along the floor, bleeding onto it from his nose and Luna was making her way back up the stairs, ducking as well.
It was probably better if they stayed down, because spells were flying around madly.

A spell hit right between us, the floor exploded, and when I picked myself up from the rubble, Potter had been seized. One of your Death Eaters had grabbed him by the neck and he was standing on tip-toes to not suffocate.

"Give it to me," the man hissed.

"Harry!" I called, holding out my hand. He got it at once. I was never a good catch, not like he was - youngest Seeker ever, can you imagine? He had always been quite a vision on a broom - but I caught the orb when he threw it to me.

The Death Eater let go of him at once, now stalking at me. And here is what I did, perhaps the smartest and stupidest thing I had done so far: I just threw it to the ground.
Your minion howled and lunched forward, but it was too late. The prophecy shattered, the white creature that inhabited it rose from its remains, but could not be heard over the general chaos.

It was as if he was shouting his intentions at me before he acted. I yelled, 'Protego!' even as he raised his wand, but would not have had to.
Behind me, Neville Longbottom had hurled himself to his feet and stumbled forward - and, with a muffled scream-groan, stabbed the Death Eater right in the eye with his wand. Actually, he might have missed it, but either way the man let out a pained howl and crumbled.

"Thanks!"

"Cassie!" Harry had reached us again, panting heavily. "You need to grab Neville and go, we left the others-"

"I'm not leaving you alone in a fight!" I shot back.

His eyebrows drew together, but he was shortly distracted - the Death Eater had got up already, still holding a hand to his head, but aiming again.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Arms and legs snapped together and our opponent finally keeled over.

"Good one," I complimented.

"Seriously, you need to-"

"We're in this together," I said. "There's no backing out anymore."

Besides, I had called for you. I knew I had, and I knew you would be here. Anytime now. You had to be - and when you came, they would be in a lot more trouble and it would be my fault. If the behaviour of your henchmen was anything to go by, though, I would at least give you a pause. Depriving the others of that chance would be more than cowardly.

A green light sailed past us suddenly and we all dropped to our knees to avoid it. It had been Lucius Malfoy, who was still facing us with a murderous expression on his face.

"Stupefy!"

By some miracle, it hit him and he dropped, much like his son had earlier that day. I suddenly felt a little sick - I had known this man for years, he had helped me out, welcomed me into his home. Of course, that was only because he wanted to be safe, should you come back, but still.

"Draco will be upset with you," Potter prophesied next to me.

"That's the least of my problems," I said, and was right. By the time I would talk to Draco again, we would both have our minds on other things than a Stunning Curse I once sent at his father.

"Come on," a voice suddenly called clear across the fighting and Harry froze next to me. "You can do better than that!"

Sirius Black was duelling Bellatrix Lestrange and they were more than even. Fighting to kill and both obviously delighting in it. Jets of red light were thrown back and forth, the occasional green mixed in for good measure.
Bellatrix' face was grim, determined - and Sirius Black, you may wonder? He was laughing. He was laughing in his last moments and it had not quite faded when Lestrange caught him square in the chest.

It was just a Stunning Spell, but he stumbled backward, his body curved, and he fell right through the arch in the middle of the room. He never hit the ground on the other side.

There was a beat of silence, then Harry roared beside me and jumped up to bolt after Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Harry, no!" I yelled, knowing that in that state, he would not stand the slightest chance against her. He did not listen. He ripped from my grip and pushed Professor Lupin away.

Meanwhile, Bellatrix was singing. I killed Sirius Black!

So this is how we met.

Me, dashing off after your arch-nemesis, desperate to catch him before he did something stupid - and you, rushing to meet us because your minions had already done something stupid.
Funnily enough, you had been on my mind the entire night. All throughout, I had wondered if and when we would meet, my heart had pounded at the thought - but when we finally did meet, the only thing on my mind was that I would definitely not let Bellatrix Lestrange win.

Potter was a considerable bit faster than I was and so, when I reached the Atrium, he was already battling her, creeping around the fountain as they went at it.

"Crucio!"

She screamed as she was knocked back, but it was obvious that the curse did not have the desired effect. In fact, she laughed.
"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you?" she yelled. "You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain - to enjoy it..."

"Shut up," I ordered. I had finally reached Harry and he flinched when I put a hand on his shoulder. "Or I'll have a go at it."

"You cannot win against me!" she seethed, getting back to her feet and whipping her hair back. "I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant. I learned the Dark Arts from him and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic girl, can never hope to compete-"

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled, but we both had to duck immediately as she deflected the spell. We landed behind the goblin statue of the fountain, listening for the sound of her footsteps.
When I glanced at Harry, I barely recognized him; he was pale and shaking, his eyes red-rimmed with unshed tears and yet he looked so murderous that I almost shrank away.

"Potter, I am going to give you one chance!" Bellatrix yelled. "Give me the prophecy and I may spare your life."

"It's gone!" I shouted back. "I smashed it... bet my father's not going to be happy with you!"

You were not. You were anything but happy.

"LIAR!" she shrieked, desperation creeping into her voice. "YOU'VE GOT IT - Accio Prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

Harry laughed, a terrible, cold sound, full of mad satisfaction. "Nothing there!" he called. "Nothing here to summon!"

There was a beat of silence, when it seemed like we had finally broken her - and perhaps we had, a little bit, at least for that time. Then, she started begging. Master, she would call. Master, I tried, I tried-

I got up, to see her on her knees, wringing her hands together as if in prayer - and Harry, behind me, called out to her again, "Don't waste your breath, he can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?"

There you were.

I whirled around, my wand ready and for the first time ever, we stood face to face.
You were nothing like the picture of your school years that I had once been shown - you had been handsome there and were terrible now. That snake-like face, the gleaming eyes, the ghostly-pale skin; I was struck in that moment by the thought that you were not completely human. I did not know then how right I was.

For a long, terrifying moment, I wondered if you even recognized me - after all, you had never seen me before and my skin was darker than yours, my eyes a different sort of brown than you ever had and hell, I was sure that your hair had been jet-black back in the day and mine was definitely brown.

- and then you said my name, softly, carefully, as if you were tasting it on your tongue. "Cassandra..."

- and my wand lowered even without my conscious decision.

"You called for me," you said.

"I figured I had waited long enough."

Had I not? Almost sixteen years had I waited for you to come for me, after you had disappeared to kill the very boy at my side - I could feel his movement next to me and prayed that he would not do anything stupid right now.

"Master!" I groaned as Bellatrix threw herself at your feet "I am sorry, I was fighting the Animagus Black, Master-"

"Be quiet Bella," you ordered and she fell miraculously quiet. "I shall deal with you in a moment."

She was still snivelling, protesting under her breath, and for the first time, I did not only think her mad, but actually quite pathetic. She was not much without you, was she?

You were ignoring her, though - instead you eyed me yet again, head to toe, before you turned abruptly away. Harry had snuck around us now, putting some distance between him and you, but clearly not enough. You found him with terrifying ease

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," you announced quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long-"

"WAIT!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

I screamed, I launched myself forward - I even contemplated tackling you, can you imagine? (Do you think it would have worked? Because I think it might have.) - but I need not have worried about Harry.
One of the statues of the fountain had jumped from his position, rushing to shield Potter from the attack. It landed square between you and him and the curse merely sprung back from its chest and shot off into the dark.

I almost stumbled over Bellatrix in my surprise just as you whirled around.
It was Professor Dumbledore, standing as calm as could be by the fountain. I did not know when he had arrived, or why he was here in the first place - no one had seen him since the day the DA had been discovered, after all - but he had come just in the nick of time.

You hissed, much like a snake, and sent another deathly curse in his direction. Dumbledore had disappeared before it even slightly reached him.

"Bellatrix," you ordered. "Take my daughter and go."

"What?" I said. "No!" Bellatrix was already on her feet, nearly by my side when I recoiled. "Touch me, and I swear you'll regret it."

That day, I also learned that my word, as much as it meant sometimes and to some people, meant nothing when it stood against yours. She did not even hesitate to grab me by the arm and pull me away, towards the fireplace at the backside of the Atrium.
I called out - stupidly, in retrospect, for you. I called out with the stupid notion that there was such a thing as changing your mind, as swaying your opinion.

You were focused on Dumbledore, though, who had reappeared and started and almost casual conversation - he called you Tom and I remember thinking that you were not a Tom, and nothing like the boy Dumbledore was referencing.

I cried out again, and for the first time, Dumbledore seemed to notice me and Bellatrix' steady pull towards he exit. He sent one of the statues my way, the centaur galloping with thundering hooves towards us - and Bellatrix hissed behind me just as you had.

"Well, I wanted to go the nice way," she said.

"Wait," I said. "I don't want to-"

She did not care. She turned on the spot, a sharp tug behind my navel pulled me forward - and just like that, she had taken me away.

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