To Kingleomon13 the psychic reviewer; You will find out his fate in chapter forty but yes you're pretty close to it.
The plan is for this story to end in a couple of weeks time on chapter forty two with an ending that will be very open to your own interpretation. I'm doing this for two reasons. First is that this is where the original plan ended for me, although I was going to make it a much bigger cliff-hanger Second is the fact that I've been going at this fic for over a year now and I really need a proper break from it.
Don't panic. There will be a sequel and I make this firm promise to you now that I will post the first chapter on new years day 2017.
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.
38. Caffeine.
They barely had three weeks of normal (ish) school life before the Easter holidays were upon them and Cassie and susan were on the train and heading back to London again. Once again there was going to be a house-full as all of the Freaks, even Ginny astonishingly enough, were given permission to stay with the Blacks for the break. As they reached the large group waiting for them on Platform nine and three quarters, however, it quickly became obvious that they would not be spending it at Grimmuald Place. Sirius, Amelia, Andromeda, Remus and Nymphadora shepherded the excited teenagers towards the public floo stations and guided them through, giving each of them the address as they went.
Bones manor, tucked away in a secluded and unplottable part of the North Yorkshire Dales, was a rather imposing house and much, much larger than Twelve Grimmuald Place. Which was why they were here. Sirius had volunteered, on his dead mother's instructions, to host the annual Eostre ball and Amelia, seeing it as an excellent opportunity to publicly announce their engagement had suggested that they hold it here at her family estate. There were other, more practical reasons as well, such as the greater space afforded by the grand old Georgian style manor house and it's generous grounds, but it was mainly so that she could invite enough people to only have to make this silly announcement once.
Upstairs in her childhood bedroom a certain red head was feeling very conflicted just now. On the one hand she was delighted to have her wonderful girlfriend whirling and twirling around her room in a beautiful black ballgown with a huge smile on her gorgeous face. On the other hand she had quite forgotten just how many drawings, posters and photographs of the same girl she had plastered over every single available piece of wall space in here and was feeling totally mortified by how over the top her obsession had been. And still was, truth be told. Delight won out in the end as she watched Cassie finish her solo dance and come sashaying towards her with a wicked look on her face.
So what do you think of the dress then. Is it conservative enough for you?
Susan and her auntie had persuaded Cassie that the kind of dress that she had worn at the Yule ball would be extremely inappropriate tonight and while that was usually enough of an incentive for her to wear it she had been threatened with the restriction of intimate activities if she did. So it was a much more demure dress that covered her this evening with considerably more material although she had thrown enough of a hissy fit that she was allowed to keep her arms bare. All the training and physical activity she did had left her very trimmed and toned and Cassie did love showing off her 'guns'. Also nobody could see her lovely tattoos if her arms were covered and she wasn't going to deprive the world of that particular treat. To be honest though she would have buckled under eventually if they had really insisted as she was so very excited about this event happening in this particular location.
This was because Cassie was going to get to do something that she had always wanted to do since she had sneaked into a late night showing of Gone with the Wind while looking for somewhere dry and warm to sleep in Newport. The Black heiress, impeccably coiffed and dressed in a sable, velvet ball gown took the much cherished memory of Scarlett O'Hara sweeping down the grand staircase at Tara and imitated it perfectly on Bones manor's very acceptable version of it. Susan on her arm, she descended with dignity and grace to the spontaneous applause and coos of the watching guests, courtesied to her Head of House and his fiancee before being led out by Sirius for the first dance of the evening. Every eye was upon them and, for once, the pair of mischievous Blacks managed to not disgrace themselves or their extended family by behaving in an entirely correct and proper manner. First dance over, the ball began in earnest.
It turned out that now she was a Black Cassie had a lot of cousins and, unfortunately for her, she was supposed to dance with all of them which led to an increasingly grumpy and annoyed Susan. Sirius, in a rare display of maturity, tried to put off as many of these hopefull distant relatives as possible, knowing full well that anything that made her girlfriend unhappy also made his daughter moody and aggressive. And more often than not extremely violent. So he steered away the worst of the idiots while making a point of engaging the red head in an amusing conversation, pointing out who among their noble guests had the most juicily scandalous sexual deviances and peccadilloes. Both Amelia and Cassie were extremely grateful to him for keeping her distracted and each silently promised him a treat for his actions. Although Cassie's idea of a treat for him was more along the lines of playing catch with a frisbee than the sort of activites that her future step mother was planning for after the ball.
By the end of the first hour Cassie had had more than enough of spurious semi relatives trying to flirt with her and was ready to seriously hurt the next one who tried. And right on cue here came another one of the multifarious cousins that dared to brave the glowering countenance of the Black heiress. Oh hang on, this could be interesting. She felt a rare grin grace her countenance as she watched the resigned, but still very reluctant, Draco Malfoy being pushed by his awful mother, head down to hide the horror on his face, towards his 'cousin' Cassandra. He bowed stiffly upon reaching her and held out his hand as he had been taught to do when inviting a young lady to dance.
"Miss Evans-Black I wonder if you would do me the honour of taking a turn around the floor with me."
Cassie glanced at his outstretched hand then back up into his face, raised an eyebrow and treated Draco to her best haughty 'Black princess' expression of dis-interest and mild disgust that both Andromeda and Walburga had insisted she learn. Seeing the fear cross his face, fear but not of her interestingly, ah mummy dearest was still hovering, she relented and gave him a slight nod before holding out her own hand for the blonde young man to take. The relief and gratitude that he felt was clearly too great for even the properly schooled Malfoy heir to hide and she smiled darkly at him as he guided her out on to the dancefloor.
For the most part during their dance the nervous young man kept quiet although she once again got the feeling that it wasn't her that he was nervous of. Well mostly not her anyway. On the second turn around the floor he finally managed to work up the courage to speak.
"I'm sorry for this Miss Evans-Black it was not my intention to do this but mother insisted, I'm afraid."
Ah yes, Narcissa Malfoy nee Black. The dullest woman alive. At least when it came to House Black financial matters anyway but if Princess Hair Gel's mood was anything to go by she was a much more interesting and imposing character at home. Cassie still didn't trust him yet but she was prepared to put aside any differences they may have for now, especially since his timely warning about what was waiting for her at the conclusion of the final tournament task. He had potentially saved her a great deal of pain and maybe even her life, depending on how good this Voldemort and his butt-monkeys really were, and endangered himself to do so. That cut the Malfoy heir a pretty decent amount of slack.
Cassie gave Draco a gracious nod and, for once, a smile that didn't want to make him run for the toilet. They finished their dance still in silence but at least with slightly less shaking from her partner. Ending with a formal bow as the last strains of the waltz faded Draco offered the scary teenager his arm, was utterly shocked as she actually took it and led them over to the Black/Bones contingent. Managing to reach their destination without passing out through fear and/or relief the young man handed his dance partner off to her girlfriend (who looked like she really wanted to cut off bollocks with a rusty knife) and cleared his throat.
"Thank-you for agreeing to dance with me Miss Evans-Black, I know that we haven't always seen eye to eye on things but I hope that in the future you may come to regard me as a useful supporter of your cause. Whatever that may be."
I think it's time for first names now don't you?
"She wants you to call her Cassie." Susan, still glaring darkly at the blonde boy, took the prompt and informed Draco of her girlfriend's wish.
"Oh. Do you think that's quite proper?"
"You'd prefer cousin Cassandra perhaps? Or maybe oww, oww please don't kill me I'll call you whatever you want?" Susan Bones gave him the possible options in a kind of bored monotone that made Draco think that this clearly wasn't the first time she'd had a version of this conversation with someone.
"Ah, right. Point taken. Cassie it is then."
You know he's not nearly as stupid as I thought he was. Shame I don't get to hurt him now but I suppose I can restrain myself if he turns out to be a useful ally later on.
Cassie sighed dramatically and her friends politely attempted to stifle their giggles at her disappointment of non violent interractions with the boy. Apart from her sister, that is, who started laughing so hard and so loudly that Hermione had to take her off to the bathroom to 'calm her down'. Yeah right. Like anyone believed that. All the Freaks knew that Miss Potter would be receiving some serious discipline for her poor behaviour.
Right then who's got the next dance?
"Ooh me, me. I want to go next before the nargles drive you to murder and mayhem." The irrepressible dirty blonde bundle of energy that was Luna Lovegood was bouncing up and down with her hand in the air determined to be next on the beautiful teenage heiress' dance card.
Yes Lulu, that's perfect. Let's get this party started.
This relatively innocent statement marked the start of the descent of Amelia Bones' perfect, proper Eostre ball into something that resembled one of the many out of control parties in Psycho Freak tower. The fact that most of the Black family, barring Andromeda and Narcissa were actually joining in rather than trying to stop mayhem did not go un-noticed by the monocled witch and Sirius' promised 'treat' was promptly cancelled. This was her life now wasn't it? She was the immovable force of restaint against the unstoppable object of the Black's insane lust for causing trouble. Still it could be worse, she thought. At least she didn't have to worry about her fiancee horribly murdering anyone who looked at him wrong. She really didn't envy Susan even slightly.
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Coming out of one of the downstairs bathrooms, the squeals and shrieks from every one she had tried upstairs had quickly decided her to go and explore for a less occupied one, Cassie caught sight of a shock of blonde hair. She looked around, scanning for the particular shade of ginger that she knew wouldn't be far away. Wherever Luna Lovegood was, Ginny Weasley was sure to be found lurking about somewhere as well, mooning over her friend. And there it was peering around a door frame while trying to be inconspicuous. Honestly all the shit the red head had given her and Suzie last year and here she was acting like a love-sick teenager. Which she technically was Cassie supposed but still, not the point. The point was that she was being bloody annoying. Not that Lulu was any better mind you.
The situation had been chafing on Cassie for quite some time now and the thought of going back to the Freak tower and having to go through another term of this, especially when she was supposed to be training, did not really sit well with her. She didn't need any distractions right now with what was coming next month. She needed a quiet few weeks of planning and preparation. Oh and she wanted her friends to be happy and such ... blah, blah, blah. It was this line of thought that prompted her into action and she did so immediately, appearing in front of the clueless witches and directing them, none too gently, to wait for her in her and Suzie's bedroom while she finished her morning ablutions.
It was on the way to this impromptu meeting with the 'annoying sisters' that she passed the open door of the study and happened upon a very flushed looking Hermione Granger half slumped in the seat at the desk. Spotting the soles of a pair of combat boots poking out from underneath the desk, Cassie had a fair idea of what was making Miss Granger quite so sweaty and out of breath. She smirked and waited until the proper young lady, the sweet and innocent Surrey dentists' daughter had almost reached her crescendo. At which point Cassie knocked loudly on the doorframe causing Hermione to fall backwards off of her chair with a shriek complemented with a loud banging followed by a great deal of muffled cursing from under the desk.
The ensuing hasty re-arranging of clothes and embarrassed fumblings around resulted in a snorting and huffing fit from the Black heiress who was struggling to stay upright by this stage. Finally able to get control of herself, Cassie pointed at the two girls and crooked her finger twice.
Oi, mistress Hermione. Put my sister down and follow me, I have a job for the pair of you.
The grumbling, bushy haired bibliophile and her frustrated girlfriend muttered darkly about nosy, cock blocking bitches as they trailed up the wide, imposing staircase behind Cassie. Which she, of course, heard every word of and had a little grin to herself about. Served the horny little cows right for getting it on in a public area. Reaching the bedroom and the waiting miscreants, however, she quickly shut off her happy face and prepared for discipline.
Sit down, shut up and pay attention.
The wide eyed third years did what they were told without delay.
Now I'm aware that I don't exactly have the best track record in this department.
Ginny snorted and received a chilling glare for her outburst.
However, the thought of you two fluttering around each other with those awful googly eyed, longing looks frankly fills me with a horror that I can't begin to describe so ...
At Cassie's signal Charli and Hermione sat behind the two girls on the bed, gripped each of the younger witches lightly on the tops of their heads and very gently forced them to face each other.
Ginny, it is painfully obvious to anyone was the gift of sight that Luna is in love with you and has been at least since I have known the pair of you and probably long before that.
The youngest Weasley went bright red, made a stangled 'eep' noise and attempted to look anywhere but at Luna Lovegood. This turned out to be quite difficult as her head was clamped in the soft but unrelenting grip of their respective captors.
Luna, as you can see by Ginny's reaction, she is madly in love with you too. You have the power to reduce the strong and forthright Miss Weasley to a blushing, stuttering mess who says things like 'er' and 'eep'.
The chuckling from the Irish girl birl behind her vibrated through Ginny and made her blush all the harder, while a look of comprehension and then wonder crossed Luna's oddly pretty face.
Okay then. We are going to go and have morning tea with the others now and do this stupid bloody interview. I don't want to see either of you again until you have ... at the very least ... had a bloody good snog and a make out session. Also, hand holding and feeding each other are now mandatory activities for you two while in my presence. Are we clear?
As the two older girls released them Ginny and Luna nodded their assent.
Awesome.
And with that Cassie grabbed Charli and Hermione and dragged the pouting witches from the bedroom. They really wanted to stay and see what happened but were not about to test the patience of the girl who had just caught them shagging in Amelia Bones' private study and thus held their lives in her hand. In the end they came along without complaint.
As it turned out they were rather glad that they had accompanied Cassie because the interview with Miss Skeeter of the Daily Prophet was a highly entertaining affair. The female reporter proved to be charming and interesting as well as profesional and soon enough she had the Blacks at ease and in a decidedly open and playful mood which was just how she wanted them. Nobody got this kind of access to the 'girl-who-lived' and for her to be this relaxed and 'chatty' was a reporter's dream. Of course it wasn't ideal having someone else translating the girl's answers as she could never really be sure that what was being said was accurate, although given her reputation it was unlikely that anyone would risk her temper. A temper that the heiress had kept firmly in check today despite the occasional twitch when Rita had asked certain overly personal questions about her love life and her pure blood paramour.
Still Rita had been gifted a wealth of incredble material here and the article that she was hoping to produce from it would hopefully bring her enough plaudits that she would be able to pick and choose any and all of her future assignments. The pictures from last night's Eostre ball, to which she had also been invited, were fabulous as well, although she would only be using the ones from the earlier part if the evening before things got ... out of hand. Except one utterly enchanting photo from near the end of the night which showed the Black heiress dancing with a very tired but very happy little girl of maybe six or seven years old with a look of absolute joy on her face. That picture alone was going to make Rita an absolute fortune when the story hit the news stands in the week after Tri-Wizard Tournament had ended and she made sure to offer her profuse gratitude to the family for their generosity. Being on friendly terms with the Blacks was definitely good for business.
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Spring was most definitely sprung upon their return to school. April turned into May almost un-noticed by the students of Hogwarts who were either studying for important tests or involved in the serious business of extra curricular activities. The broom closets were full and there was barely an unused corner of the grounds as lovers indulged themselves in the bright, warm days, perfect for romantic picnics. Or in Ginny and Luna's case just plain old making out wherever the hell the mood damn well took them. Which in the unfortunate professor Snape's case, once or twice included the middle of his potions class. The poor man was so astonished and distracted that he even forgot to give them detention.
Other than these fun little excursions and excitements life very quickly settled down to a steady, dull routine of lessons and meals for most of the girls of the Psycho Freak tower, although Cassie's regime included wandless and elemental training too. While everyone else was dragging through their school work with less enthusiasm than professor Snape facing a potions classroom full of first year Gryffindors Cassie was bouncing around like a hyperactive bunny on a trampoline. In the early days of her training with grandma Walburga fire had been the most difficult and frustrating of the elements for her to work with but now, with her exemption from any and all exams and nothing but time she was able to really spread her metaphorical flaming wings. The really cool stuff, however, happened when she combined fire magic with her natural affinity for manipulating the very air around her. Common practice with fire based spells was to have them erupt from the end of the user's wand while holding it with both hands to support the ferocious backing that usually follwed but Cassie had found a different way
She discovered that she could summon a small ball of incredibly hot fire with her hand and contain it in a sort of aerated stasis field which allowed her to move and manipulate it with great ease and in perfect safety. At this point she could create a tiny hole in the stasis field and then use it as a hand held weapon, anything from a blow-torch to a flame-thrower, by simply regulating the size of the hole before forcing air up to feed and push the flame wherever she desired it to go. This had the advantage of keeping her wand from catching light (an all too common problem apparently) by removing it from the heat source entirely and also gave her a free hand in which she could use her dagger. There was nothing quite so devastating to her practice dummies as a backdraught driven fireball followed up with the swinging, slicing attack from her monstrous scythe as she charged unhurt through their flaming remains.
Walburga's total and utter glee at this stepping up in her grand daughter's destructive powers was only slightly tempered by the fact that she now had to watch proceedings from behind a toughened and fire-proof glass wall after a slight accidental burning incident. It seemed that they had both underestimated the insane amount of flame that Cassie could produce from that innocent looking ball of fire in her small hand. Even now armed with that knowledge she had still managed to fill the entire cellar with the highly combustible element, burning everything in it to a cinder on more than one occasion. Walburga was safe, if a little scared (not that she would ever admit that), behind her glass protection and Cassie's natural resistance combined with the ability to literally freeze herself kept her from harm but anything else in the vicinity was just ... gone.
Because of the danger this presented to others no-one was allowed into the subterranean training room while she was practicing now. She certainly wouldn't mean to hurt anyone else but, as when learning any skill, accidents did happen, frequently and with terrible effect on her surroundings. Even in the out of control moments Cassie felt the utter elation that came with the use of such awesome and magnificent power and the after effects carried into all other aspects of her daily life. She attacked the simple tasks of the day with a verve and vigour that could not be matched by anyone in the castle but Cedric whose confidence also grew as his own training progressed apace. Luckily for them their girlfriends were often the grateful recipients of this up-beat and exhuberant mood that gripped the two Hogwarts champions.
The pair of them were like chimpanzees on a caffeine high and could often be seen chasing each other around the corridors, laughing like a couple of lunatics. He called her 'Queeny', a nick-name that nobody but Cedric dared to utter, and she called him 'Dumbass', which he thankfully didn't know about and their friendship was becoming legendary. Not even the Weasley twins got in their way now as the hyper Diggory / Evans-Black combination, hopped up on magical over use, could be quite devastating to a potential prankster intent on mischief at their expense. They were like two thoroughbred race horses champing at the bit and pawing the ground, waiting for the race to start.
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore sat back and watched all of this activity with an outward twinkling, indulgent smile and an inward huge, malicious grin. The time for Tom's resurrection was almost here and he was licking his lips in anticipation at all the 'help and support' he would be able to offer the Ministry and possibly the 'girl-who-lived' when the Dark Lord finally revealed himself. Which he would most likely do immediately, old Tommy boy had always been less cunning and far more straight forward and up front about his plans for domination than was strictly good for him. He really should have been a Gryffindor. And as for the Evans girl. Well. That little monster had tripped the castle's wards more than a dozen times in the last couple of weeks. He didn't know exactly how she had done it, as that kind of information was not forthcoming from the alarms, all he knew was that she had been regularly using powerful magic and setting fire to part of the school. He suspected that she was simply going to burn her way to the prize rather than go through the maze as directed and he couldn't bring himself to care less about it. The only important thing about this whole contest now was that she reached the trophy first and got transported off to her inevitable showdown with Voldemort and he didn't give a tinker's cuss how she made that happen. Only that it did.
Over at the other end of the staff table Barty Crouch Junior was also enjoying the mayhem that Cassie was causing and his thoughts mirrored the old man's in many ways, differing in only one important aspect. The Death Eater was only hoping that she got herself to the cup first so that one of two things would happen. One, she would get taken, be overwhelmed by the minions of Volde-baby, be unwillingly used in the ritual and the Dark Lord would reward him for a job well done. Or two, and the happier outcome in his mind, she would go to the graveyard, horribly murder any-one who looked at her wrong, dash the infant Dark Lord's brains out on the nearest tomb and take his place as the Queen of the wizarding world. Either way was okay with him. Working for Voldemort was easy and familiar but he suspected that assisting Cassandra Evans-Black would provide him with a good deal more fun.
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"All ready for the final task then little Cass?"
Dumbass!
Susan face palmed herself as her girlfriend gave her fellow champion an exuberant greeting. She had tried, really she had, to train Cassie out of calling Cedric that nick-name but the black haired girl seemed impervious to all her attempts on the matter. Even sexual bribery hadn't worked on this one. She smiled dreamily to herself as the thought crossed her mind that she may have to resort to the riding crop which she had secretly packed when Cassie wasn't looking and had quickly become a bit of a bedroom favourite with her. Feeling herself get a little hot under the collar Susan reached over and ran her nails up her girlfriend's stockinged thigh hard enough to leave a mark. The resulting hiss caused a chuckle from all those who had noticed which included an amused Katie Bell but not Ginny or Luna who seemingly only had eyes for each other at the moment. Ah the thrill of new love, there was nothing like it. Dragging her attention back to the conversation that had been continuing in her brief mental absence Susan tuned back in just in time to hear the handsome Hufflepuff seeker give voice to his growing excitement.
"Isn't it great, I do love a good old fashioned race to the finish and in a maze too. It doesn't get much better than that."
Cassie just smiled at her dim but happy friend and nodded her head in agreement. He was so excited about the idea of running the magical maze that she just couldn't bring herself to tell him that she was planning a rather different and more ... direct way to the prize. Nor would Cassie be telling him that she was only doing this to prove that she could, as she certainly had absolutely no intention whatsoever of actually touching the dangerously rigged trophy. Unfotunately she still had to figure out a way of keeping an over excited Cedric from grabbing the port-key as well. Her only idea so far was to reach it first and keep him away from it, hopefully without the use of physical force but she was prepared to knock him out if it was necessary to keep him safe. Katie would actually kill her if she let him get taken by the Dark Knob and frankly she would deserve it.
She gave the Gryffindor witch an 'I'll keep him safe for you' kind of a nod, grinned at Cedric, pushed him off of his chair, leapt to her feet and sprinted out of the library past an astonished and pretty annoyed Madame Pince. The popular, blonde, Hufflepuff seeker blinked from his position sitting on the library floor at the rapidly disappearing form of Cassandra Evans-Black before charging out after her yelling.
"You little cow, just you wait till I get my hands on you."
As the rest of them were ejected en masse by the furious, puce faced librarian for laughing too loudly at their companions' antics Susan took Katie by the arm and led her in the direction of their tower. Her reasoning for this was that it was almost guaranteed that their idiotic and juvenile partners would probably finish their chase up there anyway.
"Come on Katie, why don't you come and have some tea with us and we'll wait for the idiots to wear themselves out together."
"Don't you think that they should be resting up for the task tommorrow?"
"Do you want to be the one to tell them that?"
Katie paused only very slightly before making her decision.
"Tea does sound nice."
As predicted the Hogwarts champions showed up at Psycho Freak tower an hour and a half later looking tired and dirty but with the sparkling light of excitement in their eyes undimmed by their stenuous efforts. Cassie hopped immediately into her girlfriend's lap and snuggled into the warm embrace without hesitation. She had no wish to go up against this Dark Lord just yet unless he went after her girls in which case she would set the whole world alight to get at him and she would show the man who had murdered her mum just why you didn't mess with the House of Black. But for now she would let things lie and continue her training until she came into her full power which was why she was keeping her promise to Suzie and staying out of trouble tommorrow. Besides she had come up with the perfect person to send in her stead. Huffing her amusement into Suzie's neck the emerald eyed witch trembled with excitement. She couldn't wait to show the morons of the tournament committee what she had planned for the final task. It was going to be a lot of fun. Well, for her anyway.
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A lot of the next chapter is already written so barring any catastrophes in the edit it should be up in two or three days.
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