The schools are here, the goblet is lit and the mayhem is about to start. It's time for a little less introspection and a little more action as Elvis Presley would say. Kind of. Anyway, on with the show. Dragons, duels, mermaids and mazes. This should be a fun old ride.
Oh and a very quick thank-you to guest Nikki who left such a lovely review.
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.
25. Light My Fire
October saw a flurry of activity as the girls of the Hogwarts' fifth house hit top gear in their research of the rules of compliance in regards to the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The younger members of the house were unclear as to why all of their seniors were so convinced that Cassie's name would come out of the Goblet of Fire but threw themselves into helping out anyway. The first years had all been given many reasons to trust their house mates, they had been protected, tutored and entertained by these girls and had no hesitation in offering their services. However limited they may be. It wasn't long before the three girls had become a permanent fixture in the library as 'Hermione's little helpers', fetching and carrying books and old editions of newspapers for their beloved bushy haired role model. This caused a great deal of amusement among the other girls although the teasing was kept to a minimum as the effectiveness and efficiency of the Granger group could not be doubted. And yet even with this resource they could not come up with a concrete and useable way to extricate Cassie should her name be selected. It was all very frustrating. They needed help.
Severus Snape sat in the comfortable study area of the Psycho Freak tower and looked over the group of inquisitive girls arrayed before him. The Hogwarts library was not exactly equipped for the type of research that the black robed young women were engaged in currently and they should know, after days of fruitless searching. They had finally approached him for assistance. Although he knew that their families would also be tasked with gathering information about the legalities of the upcoming tournament, he was still thrilled to be considered for this important task. Honestly he had been feeling more and more useless as Cassie grew into the powerful young witch that now sat, cross legged, in front of him. He wasn't needed to help her out nearly as much these days and, even though he knew he shouldn't, he regretted that fact. The dark and dour potions professor made up for it by keeping up with her extra detentions as a way to spend more time with the amusing girl, her pet snake and sometimes her strange sister.
Charlotte Potter. Yes now there was an enigma. Having already been through the gamut of emotions that Cassie's arrival had sparked when she had came to the castle three years ago Severus was a great deal more prepared to deal with his old enemy's second daughter. He didn't struggle, as he had with Cassie, with his conflicting feelings over the fact of her extremely sweet, playful nature held against the memories of his mis-treatment at the hands of her hated father. The most telling thing in her favour, of course, was that her sister clearly adored her. Cassandra Evans-Black did not suffer either fools or bullies (Sirius and Remus aside) and the fact that Charlotte was still alive and kicking after nearly two months living in close proximity to the scary young witch spoke volumes about her character. As far as he was concerned the new girl was acceptable in her work but no more and certainly didn't have the connection with him that Cassie did but he still found her fairly amusing and intelligent. Oh and her accent was just darling. Not that he would hever admit that to anyone.
So his help was a given. It was also much more in depth and broad in it's scope than what they alone had managed. Severus did, after all, have access to a great deal of powerful and somewhat more shady individuals and groups than the school girls. He had even tentatively raised the subject with the Dark Lord, risking a crucio for his impudence, and although he was shut down pretty quickly and told in no uncertain terms to leave it alone he was rewarded with aid from an unlikely source. Pettigrew had caught him on his way to the wards and slipped the information that Voldemort himself had ordered Cassie's involvement. The rat animagus hadn't volunteered anything else even though he clearly had more to tell but Severus knew when to stop pushing. Wormtail was uncharacteristically placing himself in danger to assist him and, by extension, the girl-who-lived. It was an act that had him more than a little intrigued by the rank coward's motives. It seemed as if Cassie was caught up in the plans of not one, but two old and powerful wizards. For some reason both Voldemort and Dumbledore wanted the girl entered in this tournament and they would never be able to keep her out of it. Not that he would tell Cassie that. Hope was a powerful but fragile ally and he was loathe to take it from her. Better to tell the girl that he hadn't found a way to help than to remove her hope.
He gave a rare, thin smile to the young witches and accepted a cup of tea before giving them some direction as to which areas of study or which books would be the most useful. He knew that they wouldn't find anything but it so warmed his hard old heart to see them filled with such purpose that he simply couldn't deny them. He really was turning revoltingly soft in his middle age.
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Being forced to stand outside for hours in the chilly late October evening was not exactly endearing the members of Psycho Freak house to either their headmaster or the visitng schools for whom they were waiting. Okay so the flying carriage was kind of cool and the ship that could travel between any two bodies of water was bloody awesome (It was like the coolest pirate ship she had ever seen) but hanging around all this time just to see a bunch of seventeen year olds wrapped up in furs, scarves and coats was not improving her mood. There was one thing that caught her attention and made it all worthwhile though and that was the beautiful, giant, flying horses of Beaubaxtons. Pretty girls were all very nice but she saw those every day. Gorgeous, fifteen foot tall, blinding white pegasus', however, wasn't something you came across very often in life. Cassie was utterly enraptured by the creatures and she made up her mind to pay them a visit as soon as it was possible for her to do so. She, quite literally, had to be pulled away from her 'at a distance' examination of the great, winged equines by her house mates.
Cassie led the Freaks back into the warmth of the castle and had just managed to get them all seated and sorted before the Durmstrang students entered and went through their posturing and posing. She rolled her eyes at the strutting, smelly boys and their creepy looking headmaster and made an extremely rude gesture which involved her hand and her tongue in the side of her mouth. This action resulted in roar of hooting, honking laughter from the witches at the table in the centre of the great hall and prompted disapproving looks from their official visitors and teachers. Well most of their teachers anyway. Professors Snape and Sinistra, who had both caught Cassie's pornographic little mime, appeared to be trying very hard not to giggle along with the black robed girls. Aurora sent her a disapproving look, for the benefit of the headmaster while tipping her a subtle wink.
Next to enter were the dancing beauties that were the Beaubaxton's girls. Now this was considerably more interesting for Cassie. A couple of dozen pretty, seventeen year old witches in tight, pale blue, silk uniforms, spinning and showing off their fabulous tanned and toned legs as they passed by. They looked a whole lot better now that they had shed their scarves and overcoats. Yes, for a connosseur of the female form such as she was this was much more like it. She risked a quick glance at her girlfriend and thankfully saw nothing more than amusement in Suzie's warm brown eyes. Cassie gave her a cute, chagrined grin, embarrassed at having been caught checking out other girls.
"It's alright love, I don't mind you looking. Just no touching okay."
"You are so busted Mistress."
"Oh shut up Shortie."
She could swear that bloody snake was laughing at her again.
"Mistress Red has you sooo whipped."
"Hang on when did Suzie become mistress Red rather my red headed strumpet and where the hell did you pick up the expression 'whipped' from." She thought about that for a brief moment before coming to an inescapable conlusion. "Bloody Sirius."
"Yes little Cass the dog father can be most amusing. Oh and Miss Bones became mistress Red when she became your mate."
"You know I'm not above making you into a handbag, git."
The black haired girl was tickling Shortcake in revenge for his impudence and pondering his comments on Susan being her mate. She decided that it was probably just an issue with the translation and that the snake had been using the term in it's purely animal sense rather than referencing any magical creature bonding rites. At least she bloody well hoped so. They had enough problems this year, what with coming out to the world and her more than probable illegal entry into the Tri-Wizard Tournament, without adding in the stigma that came with having creature blood. It was at this point in her ruminations that Cassie looked up and realised that all of the visitors to the castle were staring at her. Oh crap. Not this again. She had forgotten that people who didn't know her got all bent out of shape just because she could speak to snakes, it wasn't like she had killed anybody. Well okay she had killed a few people but they had like really, really deserved it. Still this was getting bloody annoying now and her nerves, already on edge due to her failure to find a loophole in the tournament rules of entry, finally snapped. The great python wrapped itself around her shoulders and the girl and her snake stood to glare about the hall. Suddenly jumping up and stalking down the table she met every eye directed at her with that creepy, chilling green stare.
Cassie's mood had rather swiftly moved from amusement to a cold fury at the rude, gawking foreigners and officials and her progress along the dinner table was leaving frosty footprints that crackled as she walked. There were very few in the great hall who had the power or the will to return her furious gaze and those that did quickly wished that they hadn't. Her elemental power was leaking from her in flashing, blue sparks racing across her robes and a multitude of spiders webs of frost breaking out up her tall, heeled leather boots. Irritation with being stared at and despised, yet again, had turned to anger which had fast morphed in it's turn to an all consuming rage. Hermione held on to Charlotte's hand in a death grip as she watched the twitching, scowling girl release her magic across the hall. This was the Cassie that she remembered from the bathroom in her first year, the rage filled, psychotic Cassie that scared the absolute crap out of the muggle born witch. And everyone else if they had any sense. Charli just held onto Hermione's hand and gawked, open mouthed at her powerful little (only by a week) sister, not in fear, but in admiration. But then, nobody had ever accused her of having much in the way of sense.
Susan Bones was becoming increasingly nervous. After what looked to be a fun little chat with her python, Cassie had reacted badly to the whispers and the stares that this conversation had sparked. As she saw the sparks arcing and jumping across her girlfriends body Susan acted before she snapped and hurt someone. Or worse. She followed Cassie's icy footsteps swiftly down the table to where the girl was snarling and facing off against a huge, belligerent but shocked looking woman who she assumed was the Beaubaxton's headmistress. The tall red head came up slowly behind her girlfrend, lightly and carefully wrapped her arms around the shaking young woman and, taking a deep breath, whispered calming words in her ear. Shortcake, signalling his approval for her actions slid out and around to envelop the two of them, tightening his muscly coils to hold them together. As Susan settled her raven haired sweetheart back into her and muttered words of love and reassurance, she allowed her lips to brush along Cassie's neck further soothing her. Feeling the stiff and tense shoulder muscles gradually starting to relax she held on to the Black heiress for a couple of minutes more before turning and leading the now compliant and downcast girl back to her seat.
Not a single sound was heard in the hall apart from the soft footsteps of the two fourth years. They had all heard the rumours of course, but it really didn't prepare you for actually seeing someone, firstly speaking in parseltongue and then exhibiting the awesomely powerful elemental magics of the ancients. Having now experienced this, it was not something that any of them were in much of a hurry to see again. The only exception to this was the tallest, prettiest and perhaps blondest member of the Beaubaxtons delegation. Fleur Delacour found herself to be quite impressed and also rather ... interested.
"Well if Miss Evans-Black is done with her little drama? Let's move on shall we."
Dumbledore kept his grandfatherly smile in place while he admonished his most dangerous student very gently for the benefit of their guests. Inside he was seething. Not only had she somehow managed to circumvent the sorting hat's original decision and recruit Potter into her abonimable house but the little bitch had now seriously embarrassed him in front of the Ministry and the visiting schools. Of course she had also embarrassed herself with her inability to keep that infamous temper of hers in check. It was now almost a given that everyone who mattered would believe that she had entered herself in the tournament after tonight's little display of pique. They would think her a hot headed attention seeker who was powerful and egotistical enough to cheat her way into the contest. Honestly she couldn't have screwed herself over any better if she had planned it. Good mood thoroughly re-established he chuckled under his breath as he introduced and welcomed the competing schools to Hogwarts and explained, once more, the rules and protections which his Defence against the Dark Arts professor was hopefully about to successfully bypass.
The psuedo professor in question was sitting back in his chair and watching all of the fuss and hubbub with a twitching scowl pinned to his face, masking his utter delight at a truly wonderful evening's entertainment. He was honestly feeling a bit bad for the girl-who-lived, having got a glimpse during their defence lessons as to just how clever and how interesting she was. Cassie was also a great deal of fun to teach, her enthusiasm and skill for the subject, along with her wicked sense of humour, had him in real trouble trying to keep up his grumpy Moody impression. All he wanted to do was laugh along with her and her friends at some poor schmuck's misfortune as he was hexed into submission or shocked with lightning from her fingers. And as for her temper. Oh my. That was just delicious. As the girl herself had just so very recently and explicitly demonstrated. If only he had been born a couple of decades later he thought that he could have seen himself working for her instead of Voldemort. Barty Junior was that convinced that she would be the next Dark Lady. Well if she managed to survive this tournament that he was about to enter her for anyway. Not that that was likely. Oh he had no concerns about the tasks themselves. No it was what would come for her at the end of it all that he was worried about. Regret for the girl once again resurfaced as he fingered the stolen Hogsmeade permission slip in his pocket.
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It was all quiet in the Psycho Freak sitting room. The nine students and their faculty head sat around in the comfortable chairs nursing their large mugs of hot chocolate that Winky had prepared for them all.
"Well. That could have gone worse I suppose."
How?
"Susan could have failed to get to you in time and you could have caused an international incident by slaughtering fifty invited foreign guests in front of a former auror, two Ministry representatives and half the British press corps."
Ginny deadpanned her response and was rewarded by the first real smile to emanate from Cassie's face since the incident in great hall earlier this evening. It wasn't destined to last too long, however, as the silent girl's dark mood returned all too quickly. The Black heiress was more than aware that she had made a very substantial and very dangerous mistake tonight. Of all the times to let her anger get the better of her why did it have to be then. It wasn't like she wasn't used to people staring and whispering at her. The consequences of her outburst would pretty much seal her fate when her name was pulled from that manky bloody cup. Shit, shit, shit. All of their effort over the past weeks had been wasted just because she couldn't keep her damned temper under control. Her adoptive grand mother, Walburgia, was always telling her to reign in her emotional responses and to keep a cool head and the old bat was going to have an absolute bloody field day with this one.
Sorry for making you do all that hard work for nothing girls.
She looked so uncharacteristically forlorn and tearful that her house mates were completely undone. There was a rush of bodies as all eight witches threw themselves on top of the now bemused young woman. Assaulted with tickles and hugs and kisses, Cassie's dour demeanour broke at last. She might be forced into this tournament through a combination of the white bearded old tosser's manipuations and her own stupidity but at least she wouldn't have to go through it alone. She had her weird friends, her weird family and her brilliant and beautiful, but also pretty weird, girlfriend to help and support her. She smiled to herself freeing one of her arms from underneath the witches piled on top of her and manoevered herself so that she could give a good, hard pinch to the closest bum. The resulting squeal and squirm brought her momentary relief from the tickling as well as a good deal of malevolent satisfaction. Unfortunately for Cassie this also escalated the tickle war considerably. Apparenty somebody was a biter.
Aurora Sinistra stood in the doorway with Severus and smiled as the Freaks teased and played with their unofficial leader. At least the girl was looking a lot less suicidal now. At one point of the evening Cassie had made the always gloomy first year Cerys Williams look like the life and soul of the party. It was hardly surprising though, given the events in the great hall tonight. The Astronomy professor was still amazed at how fast the raven haired teen could go from being the bored and slightly amused young witch to the terrifying rage filled monster that had frightened poor old Madame Maxime so badly. Not that the old cow didn't deserve it for getting all snotty about one of her students. To be fair Aurora could understand the reaction if the woman had been totally unaware of all the issues surrounding the girl-who-lived, but the French headmistress would certainly have known. There was no way that she wouldn't have extensively researched the staff and students of her competition in a contest of the size and prestige of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. So she had known. Which just made her reaction provocative, over the top and downright bloody rude. In which case Aurora had no sympathy whatsoever as the giantess bitch had got preisely what she deserved.
By the time that the dark teacher had managed to stop herself sniggering at the memory of a scandalised and shit scared Olympe Maxime the house tickle fight had reached a startlingly loud climax. As voices were raised Aurora prepared to step in if things got too far out of hand. She needn't have worried.
"Luna did you just bite me on the bum?" Ginny enquired with a rather strained politeness.
"Hmmm. Oh yes. I did."
"May I ask why the bloody hell you found it necessary to do that.?" Again the strain was evident.
"Ummmm ... Nargles?"
This statement by the small blonde was accompanied by a loud snorting and huffing followed by a thump as Cassie fell off the arm of the sofa where she was, until recently, perched. It was at this point that a scowling Winky re-appeared and chivvied the mischievous little misses off to bed so that they would be well rested for their classes tomorrow and so she could repair the broken furniture.
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Hermione Granger was compiling a fun (to her) new encyclopedia of the many different ways there were to avoid the entrance hall and it's alcove that housed the Goblet of Fire. It was a tactic adopted by the girls which they hoped could be used to either challenge the validity of the choice should (when) Cassie be revealed as a champion or to stem some of the tidal wave of scorn and hatred that she would face. It was a pretty forlorn hope, but hope all the same and, after Cassie's performance in the great hall the previous night, honestly a bit pointless. No-one was going to believe that she hadn't entered herself in the tournament. Still it kept her busy and gave her something to do, guiding the Freaks to and from their classes down seldom used corridors and passageways. Athough that was a bit like trying to herd cats as they did tend to wander off if their attention was caught by a new portrait or something interesting (or shiny in Luna's case). She felt a tug on her hand and turned to face her companion.
There she was. The beautiful, raven haired, emerald eyed goddess of chaos that until very recently had held all of Hermione's heart in her small delicate hands. And now Cassandra Evans-Black was leaning her head on the bright young witch's shoulder, looking straight into her eyes and kissing her tenderly on the cheek. She tried very hard not to squeal in delight as she accepted her first friend and first crush's soft, sumptuous lips onto her, now lightly sweating, skin.
Thank-you 'Mione.
"Wha ... what for?"
For everything. I'm so glad to have you back.
If she had died right then and there Hermione would have considered her life to be one well lived. After years of silence, heartache and brooding mistrust those two eleven year old girls, who had met on a train and sat to read together, seemed to finally be back to where they once were. How they would progress from here neither of the witches knew nor did they particularly care. Each of them were just glad to their old friend back in their lives and, as Scarlett O'Hara once said, tomorrow was another day.
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In the dilapidated mansion on top of the hill outside the village of Little Hangleton there was a great deal of excitement as a nondescript brown owl breached the wards and dropped it's cargo onto the tray of a childs high chair. Peter Pettigrew kept himself out of his currently minuature Lord's eyeline as the disgustingly gross Volde-baby fumbled with the parchment in case it was bad news. He was already in enough trouble after letting slip to Snape about the plans for Cassandra Evans and the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The psychopathic and power hungry pure blood supremacist may only be a tiny shadow of himself but he could still manage to inflict one hell of a wandless cruciatus when properly motivated. Two words and two initials were all that the parchment contained and yet, thankfully, it seemed to please the Dark Infant immensely.
It's done.
B.C
Volde-baby's arms flapped excitedly and his small hands clenched and unclenched while he cackled away gleefully. Finally, after all of the setbacks and disappointments of the summer, something was actually going his way. The Evans girl's name was in the cup and Barty Junior had assured him that, due to the charms that he had laid, she would definitely be selected to be the fourth champion. The plan to resurrect him to a more useable form was under way and within eight short months he would be free to ravage ... ahem ... lead magical Britain once again. Swivelling his head to find a target the Dark baby celebrated by catching his servant wormtail in the arse with a crucio as the rat animagus made a panicked dash for the kitchen.
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I'm going to give a special mention to Citrus Sinensis here as her reviews praising my stories while taking me to task for small grammar and spelling mistakes have made my editing process a lot more thorough. I find myself suddenly caring much more about not disappointing her and you guys with silly mistakes. Also her song fic Candy and Champion Sacrifice is a truly wonderful piece of dark poetry. I love it.
Oh yeah and she also pointed out that I've been spelling McGonagall wrong for the last year! Doh!
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