This chapter was an absolute beast to write. Sorry it took so long but it had me truly stumped for ages. I understand now why so many authors struggle with this year's events and just gloss over it. I'm kind of regretting not doing that myself. Still it's done now and the story should start to flow a bit more easily.

I'm stil not happy with it but I've re-written the bloody thing twice already and I'll be damned if I'm doing it again. Let's just accept that this isn't my finest hour as a writer and move the hell on.

I still don't own Harry Potter otherwise I'd be writing all day instead of working to pay the bills.

Dylan the Rabbit. xx

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The Silent World of Cassandra Evans.

14. Rat in the Kitchen.

For the first time since he had become an animagus, Peter Pettigrew was regretting being so well versed in both magical creatures and muggle zoology. In the past it had been a useful tool to avoid being caught and possibly consumed by the vast array of animals that would just love to enjoy a rodent based snack between meals, but now the knowledge was doing him no good at all. Now it was just making him very nervous and very afraid. Coiled on top of the cramped cage that was his new living quarters was a six and a half foot short tailed borneo python, a creature that fed, primarilly, on small furry animals like him. He cowered in a corner of his sparse prison and shivered with fear and frustration wondering once more just how he had gotten himself caught.

Peter, or Scabbers to the Weasley family, had always been more than a touch wary of the twins, choosing to secrete himsef away from their horrid misdeeds first in Percy's and then, later on, Ron's warm and tender embrace. Considering that his current change in address was due almost entirely to the pair of identical, carrot topped mischief makers it had obviously been extremely sound reasoning on his part.

His road to incarceration had begun innocently enough. Another prank in the tower by the irrepressible Weasley twins. Bright colours, loud noises, screaming, partially transfigured students and general chaos, but this had turned out to be merely a distraction leading to locked doors, a stunning spell on poor old Ron and a summoning spell and a cage for him. He knew Fred and George's antics of old and was nervous, certainly, but not afraid. Not until right up to the moment that they had delivered him to her. The teenaged terror of Hogwarts School. The Freak in Chief. Cassandra Evans. He shuddered again as the python coiled and uncoiled and eyed him with a hungry look.

The sound of a door slamming open startled him and he shifted his frightened gaze from his scaly jailor in that direction, only to be met with the cold stare of Cassandra Evans. Beautiful Lily's sweet little daughter who he had once bounced upon his knee and who had gummed at his finger when she was a baby. She had been such a bubbly, excitable and happy little girl then, always laughing either at Padfoot and Prongs' antics or just at life in general. He wondered what had happened to the child in her earlier years to turn her into the scowling monster that had stalked this school for the past two and a half years. Nothing good he was sure.

Peter's feelings for the girl were complicated. He supposed that it was the years of guilt gnawing away at him. He had sacrificed his friends, his only friends, in an ultimately fruitless attempt to be on what he believed to be the winning side of The Dark Lord's great blood war. In the end he had survived but only at the cost of being forever haunted by his own miserable, cowardly actions that night. As well as having to live his life as a pet rat to a family of well meaning but insane red headed paupers, of course. It was his penance. This was far less than Peter Pettigrew deserved and he knew it.

He had watched closely from Ron's pocket as they had entered Cassie's carriage on the Hogwart's express and had been as surprised as anyone by the fact that she couldn't speak. Well, not to other people anyway. Snakes, however, was an entirely different matter. Later on he had raged in impotent fury as the poor little thing was ostracised and relentlessly bullied, first for her parseltongue abilities (which scared him as well, truth be told) and then for her bloody slaughter of that troll. The friendless girl reminded him of the, similarly, friendless boy that he had once been and what remained of his heart had been broken all over again at her treatment. Then had come her utter destruction and humiliation of the three Slytherin upper classmen and the watchful rat animagus had started to wonder what this girl was really capable of. A question that was swiftly answered as he overheard the elves talking about the outcome her bloody fight with Quirrel. And Voldemort. He had known it was the spirit of his former master. How could he not? The evil around that man was almost tangible. He could taste it in the very air.

It was at this point that he had started to suspect that the Headmaster was up to something. If Peter could sense The Dark Lord then there was no way that the all mighty Albus Dumbledore, leader of the light and the greatest living wizard, could not. And yet the old man had simply ignored it. Probably mired in his own plans and machinations. He was playing a very dangerous game. A game that could get a lot of people killed. Peter was aware that his own fate was pretty much sealed, his actions that night twelve years ago had done that, and he would accept his punishment without tears or anger. He deserved it. Others did not. The next rise of Voldemort was going to end in blood and death for a great many innocents. He just hoped that Cassie was not among them, but knowing the scheming old man as he did, she probably would be. Unless the bravery and skill she had shown in her second year could be turned against both The Dark Lord and Dumbledore.

The brutal anihilation of the Malfoy boy in the duelling class had been a highlight of Peter's time at the school. He could only imagine how that went down at Malfoy manor when Lucius heard that his pure bred son had been, not simply bested, but postively pummelled by the vastly superior magic of the half blood daughter of a mudblood. He would have loved to have been there to have seen it. The memory would have been sure to fuel a spectacular patronus, he was sure. Lucius Malfoy was an over confident, entitled, arrogant, peacocking ponce and in his son it appeared that the apple had not fallen very far from the tree. The boy's use of the serpensortia spell on a known parselmouth was hilarious. It was almost as hilarious as the idea that spread among the students that Cassandra Evans, a half blood, could be the heir of Slytherin. He had forgotten quite how dumb most teenagers were.

Hermione Granger had not believed it though. She was a bit of an enigma that one. Peter harboured a large and surprising soft spot for the bushy haired young witch. He had liked the girl from the start for befriending Cassie and he did not blame her for her separation from her after the troll affair. If anyone knew the bad decisions that could arise from peer pressure and the overwhelming need to fit in with others to be accepted, it was him. He had watched from Ron's pocket as the Granger girl had outwardly shunned Cassie while quietly and sublty helping to quell the worst of the rumours concerning her former friend. For two years he had watched her help, while not appearing to help, and wondered how on earth she had ended up in Gryffindor and not Slytherin. It was a shame she was a mudblood. Yes, he liked her a lot and would have begged Voldemort to let him keep her as a pet had things worked out in The Dark Lord's favour. He knew that he would have ended up back in that camp. It was his nature and he accepted it. But now it looked like he wasn't going to get that chance.

He looked at the black haired and infinitely scarier version of young Lily, who had slain a sixty foot basilisk at the tender age of twelve, and considered what she would do with him. She might give him to the DMLE but that didnt seem likely as she didn't appear to be overly fond of the authorities in whatever guise they took, or confident of their abilty to conduct a reasonably efficient investigation. She had herself, after all, gotten away with killing two of her professors wthout so much as a reprimand. No it was entirely more likely that she was going to exact a little vengance herself, and thinking about her last two years here and the escalation in violence that had occured (he still had nightmares over what she had done to that bloody boggart) he knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant for him. She had her mother's temper and her father's quickness to resort to violence. That combined with her seemingly endless fascination with sharp pointy things and her very special relationship with death and Peter's future looked very bloody. And very painful. And very short. She approached the cage and had a hissed conversation with her familiar and Peter's outlook brightened for a brief moment at the thought that she might just feed him to the snake. Then it darkened again. It was deeply depressing when being eaten by a python was the better option.

Sirius Black's long wait for justice was nearly at an end. For twelve long years he had rotted away in Azkaban prison for a crime that he had not committed. Angry did not even begin to describe how he felt about that. Angy at Peter for betraying his friends to their death (and himself of course). Angry at Voldemort for starting the war in the first place. But most of all angry at Dumbledore. He must have known that Wormtail was hiding with the Weasleys, they were his staunchest supporters and the old man had known alll of the four Marauders' animagus forms from their school days. It was impossible that he hadn't recognised Peter Pettigrew from the first time young Percy had taken him through Hogwarts gates. Albus Dumbledore had the power to have him released at any time in the last decade and yet he had not done so. The manipulative old bastard had just made it to number one on Sirius' personal shit list.

The only bright spots on his horizon were the thought that at least Pettigrew would get what was coming to him now, hopefully the veil, and the fact that once freed he would be able to see his god-daughter on a more regular basis. Not that she hadn't been a frequent visitor over the past couple of months, keeping him in food and blankets and generally hanging out with the attention starved man. It was nice that he could now make out some of what she was 'saying' with her hands and hold a semi decent conversation with her, thanks to Susan's loan of her precious 'How to Sign' book. It had taken him a while but he had finally started to understand the language and, as was always the way with these things, the more he actually used it in conversation the easier it became.

He smiled fondly as he remembered Susan's first visit where she had given him the book. She had turned up alone, explaining resignedly that Cassie was in yet another detention and not allowed to attend Hogsmeade that day before reluctantly handing over the small, educational tome. The girl had not let it go fully before she had explained to him, in no uncertain terms, that this was her copy and that if he lost, damaged or even breathed on it wrong, his time in Azkaban would feel like a pleasant holiday compared to what she would do to him. At this point she had reminded him so much of her formidable Aunt Amelia, a long time crush of his, that he had started to get all watery eyed as he solemnly promised to take the utmost care of her treasured gift. When he read the inscription on the fly leaf he understood exactly how hard it had been for her to let it go. Susan Bones couldn't hide her love for Cassie any more than he had been able to for her Aunt. He sympathised fully and besides it was awfully cute. That didn't stop him teasing both of the girls mercilessly about it though, as his strength and his sense of fun had started to return. Not even slightly.

Now, however, the Yule holiday was here and the second part of the plan to see him permanently free was about to begin. It had been a shock to Sirius to learn that the greasy git himself, Severus Snape, had been an instrumental part of the planning to, not only keep him out of clutches of the dementors, but also see him restored to his lordship and even given Cassie's guardianship. He was sure that Snape hadn't done it for him, their old rivalries and enmities ran too deep for that. He had obviously done it for Cassie and possibly for the memory of Lily, the girl that they had all loved. Snape, himself, James, Remus and even Peter had adored the bright, energetic and wild young muggle born red head. They had all tried to win her and they had all cried bitter tears when she eventually chose James. Sirius had loved the Potter heir like a brother but he always knew that he wouldn't do right by Lily. She had died miserable and alone, the forgotten mistress of a married, high society lordling. He wiped away his salty tears and promised himself that her daughter, at least, would know what a loving family was. He just needed to keep his temper in check and wait for a few more days and then he would be able to take Cassie home to ... where exactly? Grimmuald Place? It wasn't exactly a warm and welcoming house. Sirius gritted his teeth in determination. It may not be warm and welcoming now but he would just have to work to make it so. He thought to himself that he was going to have to work very hard.

A black haired girl in a bright red hooded cape, frilly black dress and over large boots sported a feral grin as she flashed the frighteningly big scythe around herself, performing practice slashes and strikes with the vicious looking weapon. Amelia Bones shuddered as she observed through the large picture window as the girl sliced one snowman vertically in half before spinning with a surprising amount of agility and decapitating two more. She watched as her audience of two House elves, her niece and the python wrapped around Susan's shoulders applauded enthusiastically. The girl in the cape bowed low and stowed her weapon, which now resembled a largish dagger, back into it's belt sheath. She rose from her bow holding two snowballs and there proceeded to be a loud and furious chase around the front lawn that resulted in two very pink faced and rather wet young witches being shooed indoors by a scowling, matriarchal older elf called Shelley. Amelia half sighed, half chuckled at the sight and rose to intercept them and hopefully save them from Shelley's wrath.

Christmas at Bones Manor hadn't been this much fun in years and she was well aware that it was all because of the presence of the sometimes sweet, sometimes maudlin but always silent girl with the black hair. Well mostly black. Who on Merlin's green earth put red highlights in their hair? That hadn't shocked her nearly as much as the tattoos though. Amelia briefly wondered how she had managed to persuade someone to give her magical tattoos before remembering that she had spent the summer with the Lovegoods. Xenophilius always was a pushover when it came to his daughter asking him for anything and she imagined that Luna having another friend around would have had the silly man so enraptured that he would have agreed to pretty much anything. It could have been worse. At least Susan hadn't followed suit and got one. Her insistance on checking the girl personally had embarrassed them both but it had needed to be done. Just to be sure. Amelia had hoped that her niece's crush would have burned itself out by now but it appeared that this was not the case. Susan was most definitely in full blown love with Cassie now and it seemed from her observation of their interactions over the past few days that the other girl was more than a little interested as well. She knew that she was in for a rough few years with these two lovestruck lunatics.

She was distracted from her thoughts by an official looking ministry owl crashing down in front of her and preening importantly while holding out it's leg. The message was thankfully brief but intriguing all the same.

Come now. Fudge.

Amelia Bones rolled her eyes and wondered what could be so important that it needed her attention on Christmas day. Someone had probably stolen the Minister's favourite quill again. She headed for the fireplace and grabbed some Floo powder from the urn on the mantlepiece.

"I've got to go into the office for a bit girls. Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone."

She heard muffled giggling and an 'Okay' from Susan as she stepped into the green flames shaking her head.

From his high chair above the proceedings Albus Dumbledore searched the faces of The Wizangamot members assembled before him with his habitual twinkling smile. Inside he was not smiling. Not even a little bit. The trial of Peter Pettigrew was not as private as the Minister Fudge of the Chief Warlock had hoped. There were reporters in the gallery. Someone had tipped them off. He scanned the faces again looking for the slightest hint of disloyalty from those he considered friends as well as those he didn't. Malfoy and his Death Eater cronies obviously wouldn't want Black exonerated so they were out. Augusta Longbottom? No she hated the Blacks almost as much as she hated the press. The Weasleys? No, they couldn't be that stupid. He stopped short. Yes, actually they could. For a big payout from the Daily Prophet to ease their financial burdens they definitely could. It was the twins that had discovered him after all. A nice fat cheque from the paper waving under their greedy little snouts and they would have been given it up like a peg legged tavern wench on a wet Wednesday night. Damn it. Oh well, nothing to do now but get on with this bloody farce.

Seven and a half hours later the Headmaster sat ashen faced at his desk staring into the fire. He helped himself to a large dram of firewhiskey from the decanter and sighed heavily. Today had not gone particularly well for him or his plans. He sipped his drink and scowled thinking of the day's events.

Pettigrew was in Azkaban, Black was free, the dementors were gone and then he'd had sit through a meeting with that enormous idiot Cornelius Fudge, whining on about how the Ministry was going to be ruined if the newly restored Lord Sirius Black decided to sue for recompense. It had taken nearly two hours to calm the stupid man down, in which time the peviously mentioned Lord Black had requested and been granted the guardianship of his god-daughter in their absence. That bloody fool Fudge had cost him the control of the thrice damned Evans girl. Now she had a family, and not just any family. The financial and political power of the oldest pure blood family in the country would be available to her now and Merlin only knew what that damned troublemaking, half blood bitch would do with it. She would wrap Sirius around her little finger just as she had with the youngest Weasley and Bones and Lovegood and Flitwick. Even the great sourpuss herself, Minerva bloody MacGonnagal was not immune to the girl's dubious charms. He flung his glass violently into the fire and shouted.

"Damn her."

The newly awakened and startled phoenix, Fawkes gave the old man a sharp peck on his balding head for waking him up with his stupid plans before returning to his perch and pretending to sleep again. If a bird could be said to be smiling. Fawkes was.

Albus Dumbledore wiped away the blood and attempted to calm himself once more. He breathed slowly in and out and rested his chin on steepled fingers. Think Albus, he told himself. Her position won't help her next year. The deal for the Tri-Wizard Tournament is all signed and sealed, your plans are in place and nothing can stop them now. Tom will return and eventually he will want to regain his power. He will come on in the same old style, and I will beat him again in the same old style. The girl will die (he would bloody well make sure of that) and I will be the greatest wizard in history, people will speak the names of Merlin and Dumbledore in the same awed breath. Senility, pride and delusion were terrible afflictions for an old man and Albus Dumbledore had all three. Fawkes shook his head sadly.

The rest of the school year seemed to pass in a blur for the girls of the Psycho Freak House as they went about the business of studying and practicing their magic, sitting exams and, in Cassie's case, doing multiple detentions. For the first time in her educational career Cassandra Evans had a final term where she wasn't required to rescue anyone or kill one of her teachers. It was a nice change of pace for her and she was happy and mostly at peace with the world. There was the occasional run in with older students who had clearly forgotten that she was capable of awe inspiring levels of physical violence when she or her friends were threatened or bullied, but they were few and far between. Her budding relationship with Susan was going along very nicely, neither of them putting a label on it. Their flirting had reached new levels of innuendo and it made Luna giggle constantly, while Ginny was reduced to shouting at them to 'Stop pissing about and just get the bloody hell on with it'. The older girls had declined her generous offer and hapilly continued on at their own pace.

They visited Hogsmeade together every time Cassie didn't have a detention and found themselves more often than not sitting outside the cave that had been Sirius' temporary home, just relaxing and enjoying the afternoon sun. It was on such a day on the last visit before the Summer holidays that Cassie unfolded a letter that she had received at breakfast that morning and started to read. Susan watched the smile start on her face and piped up.

"Is that from Sirius?"

She knew it was. The strange man had an uncanny knack of making her Cassie smile like that. She guessed it was the simple fact of finally having a relative that actually wanted her to live with them. Maybe that or the stories of his house cleaning efforts with his grumpy, uncooperative house elf. It couldn't be his jokes. They were terrible ... and not very ... clean.

Yep, apparently Kreacher is looking forward to meeting me almost as much as the portrait of his mother.

"I can imagine. Aunt Amelia says that Lady Walburgia Black was an absolute tartar back in the day. Used the M word more than anybody she has ever heard and she has to work with Malfoy's dad. I can't think that her portrait will be any less bigoted or nasty."

Yes, and just think she'll be able to chew me out for being a lesbian too. Won't that be fun.

Susan looked sharply at the smirking girl who was currently attempting to disuade Shortcake from eating her letter. The question that burned in her brain left her mouth before she could stop it.

"Are you one then? A le ... lesbian I mean."

Hmmm. Let's see. I like girls. A lot. In a want to snog their face off, oh my god yes kind of a way. So yes, I think so Suzie. Don't you?

"I see. And is there a girl in particular that you like?"

Shut up, shut up, shut up. You daft cow just stop talking. Susan's brain was absolutely screaming at her now in an attempt to avoid getting an answer that she didn't want to hear. It couldn't be her. It just couldn't. It was going to be some stunner from an upper year like Cho Chang or Katie Bell. She froze as she felt a palm stroke her cheek and tried desperately not to lean into it. She failed and nearly missed Cassie's answer.

What do you think.

"I think that's a good way of avoiding the question."

Susan's heart was hammering in her chest now, she felt like she was going to have one of those muggle 'cardigan arrests' that Ginny had told her about. And she should know, her dad was an expert on muggles. All thought ceased for the red head as she saw Cassie sign out the answer.

It's you Suzie. It's always been you.

Cassie thought that this was the biggest squeal she had managed to coax out of the girl yet as Susan launched herself at her and proceeded to put her in a very effective and enthusiastic, if unorthadox, lip lock. When the other girl finally allowed them them to surface for some much needed air, Cassie got her attention again.

You know I might have to reconsider if you're going to be this slow at everything.

"Shut up and kiss me."

So she did. Just once though.

That's enough Cuddles. You've got until September and our first Hogsmeade visit of the year to work out how you're going to ask me out properly. None of this vague half arsed mumbling mind, I expect poetry and flowers at the very least.

Susan's face suddenly drained of all colour. She felt slightly sick.

"P ... p ... poetry?"

Cassie looked at her and shrugged.

I'm Welsh love. Poetry and passion. It's kind of our thing you know.

The tall, gaunt, dark haired man stood alone at the platform waiting for the familiar old scarlet express train to roll into Kings Cross. Nobody stood near him, nobody made eye contact with him. He understood the fear that they had. It would take a long time to correct the assumptions that they had spent the last twelve years believing. To most of them he was still the convict. The murderer. It didn't matter. There was only one person whose opinion he was interested in and as the train pulled up to a stop, he was about to find out what that opinion was. His steel grey eyes picked out four figures striding confdantly to the barrier where he waited, scattering fearful looking students from their path. He almost laughed at the display before reminding himself that he needed to stay calm for the girl. They looked at each other briefly before identical shit eatng grins broke out and Cassie fairly leapt into his arms, wrapping her herself tightly around him.

His voice cracked slightly as he said the words that he had been dreaming of saying since their first meeting last September.

"Hello Cass, love. Are you ready to go home?"

The human limpet nodded wetly into his shoulder and with a brief nod at Cassie's friends, they left the station together.

As this touching scene was playing out in London, many miles North and East in a dark prison on top of a rock in the North Sea, Peter Pettigrew managed his first animagus transformation since his arrest in December. His magic had been unable to do this, firstly because of a magical block by the aurors and then because of the tender attentions of the dementors. But now he had recovered enough to make it stick. A little more practice and he would be able to make it last. Not as long as last time (twelve years must be some kind of record after all) but hopefully long enough. Quickly transforming back he lay back on his rickety cot, pulled the threadbare blanket over himself and smiled tightly thinking that the wizarding world never did learn too well. Sirius had escaped in his animal form and now one year later he would do the same. Then he was going to leave this damned country far behind. Off to foreign climes for Peter. He thought Albania sounded nice. Sunshine, beaches, and most importantly remote. Very, very remote.

In Peter Pettigrew's life he had made many bad decisions that had come back to bite him in the arse. This one would turn out to be the absolute worst that he had ever made. And probably the last one too. In his blissfull unknowing state, not having 'the sight', Peter continued to smile. It would not last for long.

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Phew. Well after fourteen chapters and nearly fifty thousand words we have, at last, got to the start. I choose to think of this as a very long prologue. You, as always, may think what you like.

Reviews are always appreciated but not necessary. I'm not going to hold you guys to ransom over them.

Good? Bad? Leave your thoughts although you can always PM me with ideas, suggestions, comments if you want. Dylan the Rabbit. xx