Chapter 52 The Truth Of Cassius Warrington
Dumbledore stood up and looked down at Crouch with a look of disgust on his face. Then he raised his wand once more and ropes flew out of it, ropes that twisted themselves around Crouch, binding him tightly. Dumbledore turned to McGonagall.
"Minevera, could I ask you to stand guard here while I take Harry and Cassie upstairs?"
"Of course."
McGonagall looked slightly nauseous, as though someone had been sick around her. However, when she drew out her wand, it was steady.
"Severus" - Dumbledore turned to Snape - "please tell Madam Pomfrey to come down here; we need to get Alastor Moody into the hospital wing. Then go down into the grounds, find Cornelius Fudge, and bring him up to this office. He will undoubtedly want to question Crouch himself. Tell him I will be in the hospital wing in half an hour's time if he needs me."
Snape nodded silently and swept out of the room.
"Harry? Cassie?" Dumbledore was gentle when talking to us.
Harry got up and swayed. I was quick to put his arm around me and helped him out of the door.
He limped with a grimace.
Dumbledore grabbed his other arm.
"I want you to come up to my office first, Harry," he said quietly, leading us up the passageway. "Sirius is waiting for us there."
Harry nodded, but he didn't look like he was really with us. I think standing up was the tipping point for him.
We walked in silence for a moment, when Harry gave me a slight jump.
"Professor," Harry mumbled, "where are Mr. and Mrs. Warrington?"
"They are with Professor Flitwick," Dumbledore's voice shook just enough for me to notice. "Severus will be with them in a moment after he's done with my errands. He knew Cassius best."
'What happened to Cassius?' I asked myself.
We finally reached the stone gargoyle. Dumbledore gave the password, causing it to spring to the side. We went up the moving spiral staircase to the oak door. Dumbledore pushed it open.
Sirius was standing in the middle of the room, his face was white and gaunt as it had been when he had escaped Azkaban. In one swift motion, he had crossed the room.
"Harry, Cassie, are you all right?" He hugged both of us, it felt nice to finally hug him after so long.
"I knew it - I knew something like this - what happened?"
His hands shook as he helped me walk Harry to a chair in front of the desk.
"What happened?" he asked more urgently.
Dumbledore relayed to Sirius what had happened with Crouch. I sat next to Harry and held his hand.
"Cassie -" Harry started.
"Shh, Harry." I said.
I switched our hands so that I could brush his hair out from his eyes.
"You went through a terrible ordeal, it's going to be okay." I whispered, not wanting to make him talk more than he had too.
Harry looked pained.
Before he could say anything, there was a soft rush of wings.
Fawkes had left his perch, flown across the office, and landed on Harry's knee.
" 'Lo, Fawkes," said Harry quietly, stroking the phoenix's beautiful scarlet-and-gold plumage.
Fawkes blinked peacefully up at Harry.
Dumbledore suddenly stopped talking.
Harry's grip on my hand tightened.
"I need to know what happened after you touched the Portkey in the maze, Harry." said Dumbledore.
"We can leave that till morning, can't we, Dumbledore?" Sirius asked harshly.
He stood behind me and Harry, putting a hand on our shoulders. "Let him have a sleep. Let him rest."
Dumbledore ignored Sirius, leaning forward toward Harry.
"If I thought I could help you," Dumbledore said gently, "by putting you into an enchanted sleep and allowing you to postpone the moment when you would have to think about what has happened tonight, I would do it. But I know better. Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you. I ask you to demonstrate your courage one more time. I ask you to tell us what happened."
Fawkes let out one soft, quavering note. It made me feel stronger. I could only imagine what it did to Harry.
Harry took a deep breath and started to tell us what happened.
I was able to visualize what he had gone through, mostly because I had already Seen it happen. But my blood ran cold with the information about Cassius.
I didn't say anything though. I didn't know what I would say. Cassius and I did have conversations about what was next in his future, but I never imagined that he would be involved with Voldemort of all people.
When Harry got to the part about Wormtail cutting his arm, Sirius let out a loud exclamation but Dumbledore moved quickly around his desk to look at Harry's arm.
"Show me." He said to Harry.
Harry extended his arm out, having to let my hand go to do so.
"He said my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's," Harry said. "He said the protection my - my mother left in me - he'd have it too. And he was right - he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face."
Dumbledore and I shared a look.
'So it begins.' I thought to myself.
"Very well," Dumbledore said, sitting back down in his chair. "Voldemort has overcome that particular barrier. Harry, continue, please."
Harry explained how Voldemort emerged from the cauldron, and told us what he could remember about the speech to the Death Eaters. I gave a little shiver.
"And then -" Harry gulped.
Harry gripped my hand tighter before turning to me.
"And then when Cassius cut me off the grave… he turned around and told Voldemort, he would have to kill him before he could get to me. And Voldemort was disappointed in his choice, but he - he killed Cassius."
Sirius didn't know what that fully meant to me.
Dumbledore turned to look at me.
I paled.
"Oh." I said quietly.
I squeezed Harry's hand to let him know to continue.
So he did.
He told about how Voldemort used the Imperius Curse on him and then Harry actually managed to get a spell out, but he couldn't get past the wands connecting.
"The wands connected?" Sirius asked when Harry took a moment longer than usual. "Why?"
I looked at Dumbledore with Harry.
"Priori Incantatem," Dumbledore muttered.
"The Reverse Spell effect?" Sirius asked.
"Exactly." Dumbledore nodded. "Harry's wand and Voldemort's wand share cores. Each of them contains a feather from the tail of the same phoenix. This phoenix, in fact," he added, and he pointed to Fawkes, who was still on Harry's knee.
"My wand's feather came from Fawkes?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded. "Mr. Ollivander wrote to tell me you had bought the second wand, the moment you left his shop four years ago.
"So what happens when a wand meets its brother?" Sirius asked.
I was struggling to stay in the conversation. But I kept almost slipping into memories of Cassius.
"They will not work properly against each other," said Dumbledore. "If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do battle… a very rare effect will take place. One of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed - in reverse. The most recent first… and then those which preceded it…"
He looked at Harry, and Harry nodded at the unspoken question.
"Which means," Dumbledore said slowly," that some form of Cassius must have reappeared."
Harry nodded again.
I tightened my grip on his hand.
"Warrington came back to life?" Sirius asked sharply.
"No spell can reawaken the dead," said Dumbledore heavily. "All that would have happened is a kind of reverse echo. A shadow of the living Cassius would have emerged from the wand… am I correct, Harry?"
"He spoke to me," Harry suddenly started to shake next to me. "The… the ghost of Cassius, or whatever he was, spoke."
"An echo," Dumbledore nodded, "which retained Cassius' appearance and character. I am guessing other such forms appeared… less recent victims of Voldemort's wand…"
"An old man," Harry nodded, "Bertha Jorkins. And…"
"Your parents?" Dumbledore offered quietly.
"Yes." Harry said.
Sirius tightened his grip on my shoulder, causing me to wince in pain.
"Sorry, Treasure." He whispered to me, letting go and rubbing where he pinched.
"The last murders the wand performed," Dumbledore said. "In reverse order. More would have appeared, of course, had you maintained the connection. Very well, Harry, these echoes, these shadows… what did they do?"
Harry continued his story.
I could feel the emotions draining from me. I wanted to cry for him. I wanted to sob for Cassius. I wanted to wail for myself. But I kept it together.
Harry needed a strong front.
I had to look away when Harry told us about Cassius' last request, of his body being back to his parents.
Harry had suddenly gone quiet again.
There was a flutter of wings and I turned to look and Fawkes was on the ground, his head resting against Harry's leg.
Fawkes was crying thick, pearly tears from his eyes. I rubbed my scar from my basilisk stab. Which still confused me to this day.
"I will say it again," Dumbledore said as Fawkes rose into the air and resettled himself on the perch by the door. "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Harry. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard's burden and found yourself equal to it - and you have now given us all we have a right to expect. You will come with me to the hospital wing. I do not want you returning to the dormitory tonight. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace… Sirius, would you like to stay with him?"
"What about Cassie?" Sirius asked, looking down at me.
"Cassie and I have other things to discuss. She will need to stay here just a bit longer. If that's alright with you, Cassie?" Dumbledore said.
"Yes, sir." I nodded.
"No." Harry shook his head.
"It's okay, Harry. Sirius will be with you, and as soon as Professor Dumbledore and I are done, he will escort me to the Hospital Wing. You won't wake up alone, I swear it." I told him.
"But -" Harry started.
"No buts. Just trust me, okay?" I stood up.
Harry looked pained as he stood up.
I held my arms open for him and he was quick to step into them.
"I'll be there when you wake up, I promise." I whispered in his ear.
He didn't say anything back, just hugged me tighter.
I heard Sirius change back.
"I'll see you later." Harry whispered to me.
He pulled away and I leaned down to hug Sirius.
"See you soon." I whispered into his ear.
He gave me a lick on my cheek and the three of them left me in Dumbledore's office.
I sat back down and finally allowed the tears to escape.
Fawkes made a cooing noise and I felt him land on the chair behind me.
"Sorry Fawkes, I don't mean to be a mess." I told him as his head nuzzled against mine.
He let out another cooing noise and I felt a little bit better in my chest. My heart didn't feel like it was about to break, but I was still sad.
We sat in that position until Dumbledore came back.
"I'm sorry Cassie, I didn't realize that you didn't know about Mr. Warrington." He said as he went back to his desk.
"It's okay, I didn't See it happen either." I sniffed.
He handed me a handkerchief he pulled out of his robes.
"Thank you." I said to him.
"It is not okay, but before we get into that. What happened to you? I remember you telling me you had to go to the bathroom and you were gone for a long time." He said, sitting forward in his chair.
It was my turn to tell him what happened, so I did.
I told him that I ran to the Hospital Wing, and what was said between Morgan, Kassandra, and I. And that I woke up knowing that Harry was in danger.
"I see." He nodded.
"Sir, when Harry told you Voldemort used his blood to come back. Why did you look triumphant?" I asked Dumbledore.
He blinked slowly at that.
"It means that we have a chance to beat him."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Lord Voldemort, though he has split his souls a couple of times already, still needs human blood in his body. And if he needs human things, then there is a way to kill him for good."
And now Cassie has to start preparing with Dumbledore.
Sorry this was late! I'm on Spring Break and I didn't do anything productive after Monday. So when it came to be productive I had a hard time getting into it lol!
Shout out to liveinasong13 for adding me to your following and favorite list!
Shout out to Pamela Hutchins and XELDX for leaving a review!
Pamela Hutchins: Now she knows! Don't worry, she's just reacting to the moment, we'll see her grieve for Cassius.
XELDX: Thank you! Your review has left me warm inside! Thank you so much for your kind words!