Disclaimer: Just like anyone else on the site, I don't own Harry Potter.
The character of Cassie is mine, though, and so are Laura and Kenya! I also claim full credit/blame for the writing and elements of the plot.
A/N: Please remember as the story progresses that it is set in an AU and I am going to take it off on tangents at points!)
Thanks to Joyce LaKee and bored2hyperness for your reviews!
Joyce LaKee: Glad you liked it, more of that kind of thing to come hopefully
bored2hyperness: Fear not, these little quarrels rarely last long.
This was, for some reason, really difficult to write. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please review! :)
Lily looked up at her friend as they sat in the park, reading. "Sev…" He grimaced without looking up. "Oh dear. That tone of voice can only mean trouble." She pulled a face at him and continued, "After Hogwarts, what do you want to do?" He thought for a second before meeting her eyes. "Get a job and move out." She wasn't satisfied and, giggling, pressed for more. "What kind of job, silly? Where would you move to?" He shrugged. "What do you think I should do? Maybe… Don't laugh, but I thought maybe I could be a teacher. Dunno what subject, but… Just a thought. What do you think?"
--
Cassie padded into the Slytherin dormitory and curled up, miserable about the end of Christmas and the way in which the day had ended. As soon as she had arrived in the Headmaster's fireplace she had felt calmer, although whether this was because of the school itself, the lavender oil she'd mixed into her Floo powder, or Dumbledore's calm acceptance of her sudden and premature reappearance, she could not say. However, the dorm seemed colder than usual and it was a restless, miserable Cassie that drifted off to sleep that night.
At breakfast the next morning she sat with her Ravenclaw friends from the second year. Unlike Dumbledore, they were anxious to know where she had been; she kept her story simple and brief, omitting to mention the quarrel, and fortunately the other girls were soon distracted. "Ooh, Potter looks as if he hasn't slept! Maybe he's finally managed to use his celebrity status to score… If you know what I mean." Cassie raised an eyebrow. "I hardly think so – he's in my year." Marietta looked at her as if she'd sprouted horns. "So? He's the famous Harry Potter!"
"Marie, that's disgusting. Leave the poor kid alone." Cho reprimanded her friend before changing the subject. "Those plant cuttings have taken really well, by the way, Cassie. Do you want to come and see them some time?"
--
"I don't see why I have to be blindfolded." Cassie grumbled as she was led through the castle. "If you knew where our common room was, you might be able to wander in and out as you wanted, according to Flitwick, which is against the rules. Of course, he's being paranoid. Only a Ravenclaw could possibly pass the Eagle."
Marietta's explanation left a few puzzles for Cassie. Pass the Eagle? What was that supposed to mean? "What's the Eagle?" Cho answered hurriedly. "It's a sort of test, to get into the common room. Don't worry, only one of us has to do it." Next, Cassie heard an unfamiliar voice. "Second years, yes? Name one exception to Gamp's Elemental Law- that is, what can't you conjure out of thin air?" After a moment's pause, Marie spoke up. "Um… food?" There was a sigh. "Everyone always says food. Yes, you may enter."
As she was led over the threshold, Cassie wondered why nobody had thought of the most obvious answer: people. Cassie had found this out when she was four years old and her mother had caught her with her wand, trying to magic herself up a family, with a Daddy and a big brother and everything. Meredith had gently explained to her daughter that it didn't work like that. Magic couldn't fix everything. It couldn't bring back the dead.
--
"So… What do you want to be after Hogwarts, then?" She smiled and tossed her ponytail back over her shoulder. "A star! A Quidditch star, maybe. No, wait. I can't fly." Dropping the humorous tone, she shrugged, mimicking his motions of earlier on. "I don't know. What jobs are there in the wizarding world, anyway?" He smiled at her ignorance. "You could… train security trolls? Be a curse-breaker for Gringotts?" Lily laughed. "What are you going to suggest next? That I become an Auror? Don't throw all the dangerous jobs my way, Sev, anyone would think you were trying to get rid of me." He grabbed her hand. "Of course not. I would never want to get rid of you." She squeezed his hand before letting go. "So, what other jobs are there? Teacher… Healer… Dangerous things… I might become Minister for Magic. That could be fun." The solemn expression on her face was too much and they both burst out laughing.
--
As the blindfold was taken off, Cassie gaped in wonder at the common room. Right in front of her stood a statue of the House's founder, Rowena Ravenclaw, and in every blue-curtained window of the tower room there was a neat row of books. Clearly these Ravenclaws really did value their studying! Cho breezed straight over to one such window and lifted the entire bookshelf out of the way to reveal another neat row, this one of plant pots shrouded in blue netting. "We had to put the bookshelves up so that we could hide the plants… but they needed to be on the windowsill. The netting is to stop them from burning up in the direct sunlight. Look how well the Flitterbloom's doing! And the Tentacula's over in that corner somewhere," she gestured vaguely at the round room, "we had to make sure the first-years couldn't get to it by mistake. Of course, it nearly ate Marie yesterday but that's OK; it's only Marie after all." She was playfully punched by her friend, who took over the tour. "There's nothing behind the Charms and Herbology bookcase – Flitwick and Sprout like a little wager against each other and we didn't want to risk him finding the plants while he was trying to read up on the subject behind her back. Then over there are some of the other plants and there are a couple upstairs, too. So, that's the tour. Want to play Exploding Snap?"
It was nearly midnight when Professor Flitwick appeared in their midst, looking thoroughly irritated. "Will you girls just go to sleep already?" The cards exploded loudly and someone cheered. "I mean it! I will be back in five minutes and I don't want to see a single person in this common room." Marie, Cho and their friends did try. "But sir-" "But nothing! No exceptions! Go to bed!" He left and, after a few hurried goodbyes, Cassie followed into an empty corridor that she didn't recognise. Think, Cassie, think. She had just left one of the towers, she knew, so she would have to go right down through the whole castle to reach the dungeons. She spotted a tall ghost and followed along in her light, praying she wouldn't run into Filch or his cat.
They had only got as far as the fifth floor when Cassie heard voices headed her way. She dashed into the nearest room and hid behind the only piece of furniture as the voices seemed to follow her in. She could hear the conversation between the two boys clearly as they approached her hiding place.
"See?" One whispered.
"I can't see anything."
"Look! Look at them all… There are loads of them…"
"I can only see you."
"Look in it properly, go on, stand where I am."
It sounded to Cassie as if they boys had risked Filch's wrath by being out of bed after curfew just to look in the dusty old mirror she was crouched behind. How vain were these boys anyway?
"Look at me!" They weren't whispering any more.
"Can you see all your family standing around you?"
"No – I'm alone – but I'm different – I look older – and I'm Head Boy!"
A mirror that showed your family? But… Maybe it only worked if your family were alive. Maybe the second boy was an orphan like herself. Maybe in that case it showed… what your parents would have wanted for you; or what you could do to make them proud, to be like them. No doubt Cassie would see herself as captain of the Gobstones Team, head of the Chess Club and president of the Potions Society. That would please her family no end.
"Do you think this mirror shows the future?"
Merlin, she hoped not; what a boring future it would be for the one who was going to be Head Boy. Mind you, he was probably the studious, bookish, intelligent type who would love the position of academic power. His friend's voice caught Cassie's attention. "How can it? All my family are dead-" They were arguing now about whose turn it was in front of the mirror, but Cassie had stopped listening. The first boy, not the second, was the orphan, and the mirror could show you your dead family? Cassie's heart leapt – would she be able to see her mother again? Might she find out who her father was at last?
"Quick!" She peered around the frame of the mirror to try to ascertain the cause of their panic. There was nobody there except a cat with large yellow eyes; Cassie shrank back and after a minute the cat stopped staring and left. "This isn't safe – she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on." Noisy footsteps hurried out into the corridor and away. Cassie jumped up to follow suit, but she couldn't resist just one look in the mirror before she left. If the mirror showed dead people…
Sure enough, when she looked into the glass, her mother was smiling back at her, her hand on her reflection's shoulder. Never had Cassie so wanted to swap places with anyone in her life. To have her mum's comforting hand on her shoulder again… She sighed and met her Aunt's eyes in the mirror beside her mother. Eileen waved shyly at the niece she'd never known. Her husband was nowhere to be seen; Cassie knew that he was a drunken, violent Muggle. Perhaps the mirror didn't show Muggles or perhaps it was just that even in death he was off down the pub rather than at his wife's side. A shadowy shape stood beside her mother, face obscured by the frame of the mirror, her father's identity still hidden. Behind them all towered a tall, pale man with jet-black hair and eyes to match. Cassie stared into the mirror full of dead people in horror. There could be only one explanation for the reflection staring back at her.
Severus Snape was dead.
--
"Ickle firstie, out of bed, Peeves'll drop something on his head…" Severus looked up, irritated. "Shut up, Peeves, it's an hour until curfew. And I'm a fifth-year." Peeves disappeared round the corner, cackling madly, which no doubt meant that he was going in search of something heavy to help him carry out his threat. Severus hurried on along the fifth-floor corridor towards the staircase that would – if it was in a good mood – take him to the entrance of Gryffindor Tower. He had to talk to Lily; he'd been out of line earlier and for once he didn't mind admitting he was wrong. If he could get Lily back the humiliation would be worth it. He strode purposefully down the corridor.
"Students out of bed? Oh, let me get the thumbscrews out…" Severus looked up, irritated. "Thank you, Argus, but I'll see to it from here. Perhaps you could check that the Restricted Section is safe tonight?" Filch disappeared around the corner, muttering disappointedly, and woe betide any student who crossed his path. Snape strode purposefully into the room to confront a small shadow.
He had been thinking about Lily all day, but it was a shock to hear the small figure moaning as if wounded. "Sev, no, not Sev, no…" He stopped a moment, confused, and the figure looked up into the mirror.
--
Cassie looked up. Her mother, Aunt Eileen and her mysterious father had all vanished and now only she and Severus stood in the mirror. This Severus, however, looked more solid, more like a real reflection. She turned around.
He looked as surprised as she did when their eyes met, but not half as surprised as he looked a second later when she attached herself to the front of his robes. "You're not dead! I'm so sorry I called you Sev and I'll never do it again if you don't want me to but please don't be angry anymore and when did you get back and you're not dead, you're alive you're alive!" He didn't register a lot of that. "Why aren't you in bed? Let's go back to the common room and talk there." She didn't move. "But… Why were you in the mirror when you're alive?"
He guided her over to the mirror again and stepped back. "What do you see?" She described the picture to him and he almost smiled. "Do you mind if I look?" He took her place in front of the glass and gazed into the green eyes of Lily Evans, alive and well with his arm around her shoulder. So intent was his focus that he did not immediately notice the young girl stood beside them. Cassie. She was smiling and he followed her gaze to the other side of the mirror, where Eileen and Meredith sat together. "We should get back to the common room and I'll explain about the mirror. What are you doing out of bed anyway?"
--
"I'll tell you what I think that Mirror does. It doesn't show the dead; not exclusively anyway. If it is indeed the glass I believe it to be, Dumbledore has spoken of it to me. It is called the Mirror of Erised, and it shows you what you want; what you really want above all else." Cassie looked puzzled. "You saw a family; your family, just as you'd like it to be." Cassie nodded. "Severus… No, don't worry. I was going to ask… Forget it. Personal question." He met her eyes. "What did I see in the mirror? It's a fair question; I asked you, after all. But first I feel an apology is in order." She was quick to react. "I am sorry about-"
"No," he stopped her. "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. Please, feel free to call me Sev if you so wish; we are family, after all. I overreacted and I apologise, but I think you deserve to know why."
"When I was a child, I spent most of my time on my own. I didn't really have any friends. My father was… rather harsh in the way he treated his family, especially when he found out what we were, and it made me very shy around other people. I assumed that, since anything my mother said caused a fight, anything I said would too. So I never spent time with people my own age. Then, one day, I was walking through the park, and I saw two girls who lived around the corner playing on the swings. One of them jumped off, and she drifted to the ground as gracefully as if someone was lifting her down. It was obvious that she was like me. Magic.
"I spent weeks working out what to say to her, how to tell her about our world; she was Muggle-born, she wouldn't have known. When I actually did introduce myself, she was upset and stormed off, but we became best friends. Until our fifth year at Hogwarts, in fact, we were almost inseparable, even though she was a Gryffindor. Then we fell out…" Severus seemed to snap out of a trance, getting back to the point. "She always used to call me Sev; she was the first person ever to give me a nickname apart from my mother, who used to call me Russ to appease my father. He thought Severus was a ridiculous name, and Russ sounded far more Muggle. But there was no affection in that nickname, only fear. Lily gave me a special name because she cared about me, and it meant a lot to me. I suppose… it just brought back memories when you called me by that name. But I'd like to think that you did so because you've come to care about me a little, too?" She tentatively reached out and hugged him. "Of course… Sev. You're my cousin, after all." He slowly, awkwardly reached his arms around to return her embrace, finally feeling accepted after all these years. He was no fool; he knew that there would continue to be ups and downs with his cousin, but he was determined to enjoy having these family moments when they did come along. He was definitely out of practice with giving hugs, though. "Sev… why don't you try to make up with her?" He sighed; of course she didn't know the story, and he wasn't about to tell her everything at the tender age of twelve. "She grew up and married someone, and they moved away. I wouldn't know how to get in touch with her now."
Everything he had just said was true. Even if he explained the full story to her when she was older, she couldn't accuse him of lying. "So… have you learnt any new tricks from your Gobstones book?" She gave him an impish grin. "Why don't you try me and find out?" He sighed and summoned the board he'd given her from her dormitory. "Fine, but if you think we're playing this for the next five days, you are sadly mistaken, young lady." Her smile just grew wider. "No, I know. We'll have to play some Wizard Chess, too." Merlin, he thought, I'm actually going to be looking forward to Albus' stupid party at this rate…