Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter?
The Italian restaurant in Hogsmeade was a little fancier than Cassie had predicted. She was suddenly glad the girls had made her dress up more than she normally would. She had to admit that, from the lasagna she ordered and the salad that was brought to their table, the food was amazing, and the conversation was great too. Cassie had always liked Neville's quiet intelligence and the fact that he seemed to see more around him than the average person. This was clear though over lunch as she had to keep reminding herself to eat when she got lost in a story he told of all the things that had happened at the school before she transferred, things she'd actually been there for. Though she had been there, told from Neville's perspective, she was fascinated. Like the fact that in second year, Professor Sprout had to sleep in the greenhouses for several weeks to tend to the mandrakes and speed along their maturing. Or that in third year Professor Snape had actually kept him after class one day after the boggart incident to…something…explain or humanize his actions in some way. Neville didn't think it worked that well, but he was certain the man would no longer be his boggart if he ran into one at least.
Everything was going well until the server removed their plates and handed them both coffees. "What happened there? That looks like it must have hurt," Neville motioned to the long, jagged scar on the inside of Cassie's arm where Pettigrew had sliced into it for the ritual to bring back Voldemort.
As Harry Potter, Cassie had almost always worn long sleeves. The uniform had long sleeves, whether they were originally that way or not, Dudley's old shirts tended to be long sleeves when on Harry, and most of Harry's pajamas had long sleeves as well. Not many people would be able to see and immediately recognize her scars, even dormmates. As Harry, she tended to be less of an exhibitionist in the washroom than any of her other dormmates, mainly because of the scars and the fact that she was unhealthily thin. That being said, taken all together, her scars would indeed tell a story, one that was eerily similar to Harry Potter's. She had the slice on the inside of her arm, the circular scar from the basilisk fang, and the scar from Umbridge's detentions that were all very distinctive, along with the various scars collected from living with her not-family over the years. The blood quill scar was the most distinctive, and the one she thought it most likely that Neville had seen before.
She slid her arms under the table before any more scars could catch the teen's eye, feeling stupid for wearing the sleeveless dress. She'd just been thinking how Neville noticed things other people didn't. Like Lavender, even if she saw Cassie's scars, would never guess she was Harry. Neville though…he would figure it out. That was something she wasn't quite ready for just yet. "Erm, Neville…I didn't really grow up in a nice place," she started, promising herself not to lie to this man if she could possibly avoid it. "I also haven't had the easiest life. There are some things that I don't really want to talk about…not yet anyway," she said apologetically.
Neville looked like he'd just been punched in the gut. He hadn't really considered that Cassie had been in a bad situation before. Yeah, he'd figured out who her father was, but she definitely hadn't grown up with that lunatic. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to," he said with as much feeling as he could infuse the words with.
Cassie nodded and reached up for her coffee with her non-scarred hand. "I'm not saying that I don't want to tell you someday…but I'm really enjoying just being Cassie, the strange but also completely normal transfer student," she explained, studying the rapidly cooling liquid in the mug.
Neville smiled sadly. This girl was anything but normal. She made him feel at peace, but also brave at the same time. She always seemed to see him, unlike anyone else that he'd known for years, or even his family he'd known his whole life. And, she just had this tenacity and perseverance to her that he unfortunately now saw as hard-won through years of turmoil. She'd come out the other side strong, resilient, and just kind…which was a miracle in itself. "I can understand that," he concluded.
The server took that moment to place their check in the middle of the table. Neville had snatched it and placed what looked like a muggle debit card, but which said Gringotts on it, in the folder faster than Cassie even processed what was happening. "Hey! I invited you!" She protested as her date handed the card and folder to their server.
"Tough," he grinned unrepentantly at her. "I might not be super traditional in my beliefs, but I was raised that way, and I'm definitely not letting you pay on our first date…or probably any of the others either."
Cassie blushed at the idea that there would be others but also glared at him. "I'll change your mind…just you see."
"Uh huh, I'm interested to see you try," he smiled broadly as his card was handed back to him. "Ready to go buy some shampoo?"
Cassie grimaced at the reminder of their next stop. "Sure…by the way, how did you get that card? I want one! Carrying around galleons is heavy."
Neville led the way towards the small general store that he believed Cassie wouldn't know the way to. "It's all paperwork. My gran did it, but you can just ask at the bank…" He explained as they wandered into the store.
Cassie and Neville had replenished her shower supplies with almost all lavender scented products. She'd gotten a little obsessed after Tonks bought her some things over the summer since it was apparently calming. Then they visited Honeydukes and were making their way to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer when a silvery wolf appeared and blocked Cassie's way. "Wow, that's an awesome patronus!" Neville, stared at the wolf in admiration.
Cassie was worried though. The wolf opened its mouth and Remus's voice came out as the wolf stared at her accusingly. "What's this I hear about you inviting my girlfriend to move in with me?" The wolf asked. "You'd better be stopping by soon. I need an explanation. I'll make Severus drag you here if you don't come by in the next half-hour. He's chaperoning just outside the store."
The wolf disappeared and Neville just started chuckling. "Was that Remus Lupin?" He asked, taking in the voice and the fact that it was a wolf.
"Er, yeah…I guess WWW is our next stop," Cassie winced and took out her wand. "Give me a minute."
Neville stared as she cast her large, brilliant raven patronus. The look on his face had gone from admiration to awe as he took in the patronus and the girl. "Remus…first of all, I invited her to live with me. If you don't want her in your room, then you're going to have to tell her that, but that's none of my business. We do have plenty of guest rooms. Secondly, you know Severus is chaperoning outside your store so he can spy on what the students are buying, right?"
Neville shook his head as the patronus disappeared. "Wow…that was just wow. Even Harry Potter's patronus wasn't that strong," he concluded.
Cassie looked at him in confusion. Was her patronus really stronger? She wasn't quite sure. It was smaller than the stag, but it was actually brighter and more solid. "Remus taught me," she shrugged in embarrassment, not knowing what to say. She'd never taken compliments well, not having gotten many in her life.
"Harry taught me," Neville said, shocking Cassie by taking her hand in his. "I was finally able to get it corporeal after getting a new wand. It's a bear, only it looks like a cub. I'm hoping it changes to be a full grown one someday. I don't know why it isn't now."
Cassie hadn't ever seen Neville's corporeal patronus since he had gotten his new wand over the summer. "I really hope to see it someday."
"This ok?" He asked as he swung their intertwined hands to indicated them.
"Yeah, Nev…that's definitely ok," she matched his smile with one of her own. "Ready to help me face an irritated werewolf in the middle of a prank shop?"
"Sounds fun," he laughed as they maneuvered around the crowds that were trying to get to the grand opening of the store.
Cassie gave Snape a brief nod from where he was definitely keeping an eye on the bags leaving the prank store. The man raised an eyebrow with a glare towards their hands but stayed where he was to Cassie's relief. She knew she'd be hearing about this later though. The man was surprisingly overprotective. Remus and Tonks (in her normal pink-haired form) were ringing up students from behind the counter when the two walked into the shop. With a quick word in Tonks's ear, Remus made his way over to them when he saw the two come in.
"You aren't really going to tell me that you don't want Tonks to move in, are you?" Cassie glared at him, her free hand on her hip, as soon as he got into hearing range. "I'm not going to believe you for one second if you do."
"What?! Of course, I want Dora to move in!" Remus responded in a scandalized tone. "I meant, I should have been the one to ask is all," he sighed. "Hello, Mr. Longbottom," he ended with a similar eyebrow raise as Snape's at their hands.
"And were you? You know her lease was up, right?" Cassie continued to glare.
"I thought it was up at the end of the year!" He threw his hands up defensively, not knowing how he'd moved from being the irritated one to feeling like he'd done something wrong.
"So…you all live together?" Neville asked, trying to keep up. He knew that Cassie had met the man, but he hadn't realized they lived together or that she knew Auror Tonks as well…or that Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks were dating. Wow, that was just a lot of information.
"We do. Cassie inherited Black Manor, and I've been staying with her. Now…you do plan to treat the young woman I view as my daughter with respect, care, and kindness, correct?" Remus concluded with a danger warning glare at the teen.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "Remus…"
"No, I understand," Neville smiled at her and gave her hand a little squeeze to convey that he didn't need saving in this situation. "I would never dream of treating Cassie any less than what you have asked," he said with feeling. "Frankly, I don't think she'd let me even if I did," he added on at the end with a chuckle.
"See," Cassie just glared at Remus, after a quick smile over at Neville.
"And you don't talk him into doing anything dangerous or ill-advised either," Remus glared right back at Cassie. "I swear, some days I feel like I should be warning him about you," he added with a frond ruffle of her hair at the end.
"Hey! Ginny spent almost an hour on this!" Cassie protested as she tried to fix her hair back into the loose waves Ginny had forced it into.
"Oh, would you please try to get Severus to move?" Remus asked, turning to go back to the register. "He's scaring the customers."
"I have absolutely no control over that man," Cassie shrugged as she started searching for something to deter her dormmates from messing with her stuff.
Cassie bought a few items and dodged out of the store with Neville just as the Weasley twins entered to check out the grand opening. She was really happy to see them, but especially with her scars showing, she knew those two would be the most likely to pick up on who she actually was. Like Neville, they always saw more than most people, and unlike him, they'd spent more time with Harry over the summers working in the garden in short sleeves.
They weren't halfway to the castle before the hairs on the back of Cassie's neck rose in warning. She'd become excellent over the years, even before Hogwarts when Harry Hunting was a thing, in detecting when she was being followed. It had been generally more frustrating at Hogwarts when Colin and Dennis Creevey were usually the ones following her and constantly setting off her danger sense, but that wasn't the case now. Now, she really wished she wasn't wearing a dress and heels. She knew girl clothes were impractical in a danger situation, and she always seemed to be in one of those.
"Neville don't react ok, but I think we're being followed," she leaned over to quietly whisper in his ear.
To his credit, the teen didn't react beyond stepping even closer to her. "You know from where?" He just as quietly asked back.
Cassie had absolutely no idea to her intense frustration. "No, but maybe we should either find a group of people or move somewhere less in the open." She was already looking around for such a spot, like a large tree or a boulder at the end of the forest.
"You could send your patronus for Professor Snape," he suggested, also looking for people or something to cut down on all the angles they could be attacked from.
"Too obvious," she shook her head.
From right in front of them, a loud crack resounded, causing Cassie to jump and immediately fire out a high-powered blasting curse at the sound almost automatically. With an almost lazy wave of his hand, Kreacher deflected the curse into the nearest tree, taking out a large chunk of the bark. "Kreacher is proud of his mistress," the elf grinned toothily at the two of them. "She not only sensed her Kreacher when he was trying to be invisible, but also reacted appropriately."
"Erm, I'm not sure a blasting curse was the most appropriate," Neville laughed, but didn't actually looked concerned.
Cassie just sheepishly looked between them both. "I'm sorry, Kreacher. I never would have wanted to hurt you."
Kreacher just grinned more broadly. "Mistress needs no apology. Kreacher would have been upset if she hadn't attacked."
Cassie thought that he was probably right about that. With her history and the fact he'd been lurking and then apparated to within cursing distance, it would have been strange if she hadn't reacted the way she did. She was just happy she hadn't accidentally used one of the dark curses she was having to spend so much time thinking about recently. That being said… "Why are you following us around, Kreacher?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at the little elf.
Kreacher looked up at the castle and back. "The headmaster changed the wards to keep out the mistress," Kreacher explained to Neville's confusion and Cassie's intense anger. "Kreacher knows this from the head elf. He came to Kreacher after the students went to the town. He knows the mistress is an accepted student and an heir of the school. Kreacher thinks the mistress will still be able to cross the wards, but he wanted to be here in case she has a problem."
"So…you're a founder's heir?" Neville asked with a smirk and a raise of his eyebrow, having already known this from figuring out who her father was.
"Er…yeah," Cassie said slowly, not knowing how to expand on that.
"Cool, I'm an heir as well, Helga Hufflepuff," Neville shrugged with a grin back at her.
"Wow," Cassie shook her head wondering when Neville would stop surprising her. "Erm, so…does that mean I can still just walk in?"
"And did you really mean that Headmaster Dumbledore was trying to keep Cassie out of the school?" Neville added on at the end.
"That's actually not surprising," Cassie explained to him with a sigh. "He was less than happy with my transfer."
"Headmaster Dumblydore is not a friend to the mistress or the elves," Kreacher said viciously. "If the mistress is stopped by the wards, the elves and Kreacher will bypass them," he shrugged with a sneer up to the castle, presumably to the headmaster.
"That's possible?" Neville gaped at the elf.
Kreacher was now looking at Neville like he must be an idiot. "The elves apparate in and out of Hogwarts all the time. We bypass the wards every day. We are elves…"
Yes, and that did actually seem to answer the question. "Ok, so I just keep walking then?" Cassie asked, now looking up to the castle in worry.
Kreacher nodded and motioned for her to lead the way. Neville took her hand once more, and the three slowly started walking to the castle. "It's not going to stun me or anything is it?" She asked as they neared the point she guessed the wards would start at.
"Only if you try to forcibly enter them after stopped," Neville explained.
Cassie could feel the barest tingle on her skin as they neared the ancient magic. "Here goes," she took a deep breath and stepped forward.
For a second, it seemed like she was walking through something semi-solid, like pudding. Then came the disconcerting feeling of being scanned by ancient and sentient magic. She kept thinking "I'm a student…I'm a student…" over and over in her mind, to hopefully convince the magic. As soon as the feeling had hit her, it passed, leaving her standing as she normally would just past the wards and free to enter the castle grounds.
"That was so strange," she shook her head. Her ears felt like they needed to pop from pressure like she'd just risen to a high altitude quickly.
"I didn't feel anything," Neville looked over to her in concern. "We're through the wards…are you alright?"
"Yeah, it seemed like I was being scanned or something. I guess the castle determined I was actually a student though and overrode whatever the headmaster tried to do," she concluded as they started walking forward again.
"Kreacher will inform the head elf," he remarked before popping away again without another word.
"Hanging out with you is going to be an adventure, isn't it?" Neville asked wryly.
Cassie actually stopped in her tracks, because, yes, hanging out with her was always going to be an adventure and dangerous, and that probably wouldn't change just based on who she was, whether that was Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived or Cassie Black the daughter of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. "Neville…yes, yes it is. Are you ok with that? If you aren't…that's completely understandable," Cassie looked up into his deep blue eyes, trying to read his emotions. "I can almost guarantee you that it's not going to get easier…it never does seem to around me."
Neville let go of her hand. Cassie immediately tried to still her emotions at the loss. Instead of turning away though, he threw that arm around her shoulder and smiled at her. "Growing up, I was thrown off piers, out of windows, cursed from behind, and all to see if I actually had magic. That was before I even got to this school where I tended to get picked on as the Gryffindor least able to defend himself," Neville explained to Cassie's shock. Yes, she'd heard all this before, but said like that, she wondered if Remus would consider Neville's homelife abusive as well…she had a feeling he would. "I'm not all that used to an easy life, and I'm not afraid of some adventure. I might need a little more help with DADA and Charms though to keep up," he winced at the end.
"You don't need any help," she commented as they started walking to the castle again, a lightness diffusing in her heart. "You just need someone who speaks Neville, and the professors at this school just don't seem to care to learn."
"Well, I'm very glad you speak Neville," he squeezed her a little closer. "I hope one day I'll learn to speak Cassie as well."
"You already do," she smiled as they walked through the doors. "Hey, keep your eyes open. It's going to be great when Dumbledore sees that I'm still here," she snickered.
Neville figured it must be because of her father that the headmaster didn't want his new friend in the school, but that just seemed ridiculous to him. He'd noticed that the man didn't treat everyone fairly and always seemed to have some kind of agenda, especially where Harry had been concerned. He'd been suspicious about the headmaster before, but it was unacceptable if he was trying to keep a student from their education based on who their parents were, especially since Malfoy was obviously still there and attending classes. "Please be careful…maybe don't wander the castle alone?" He asked, hopeful that she'd take his advice.
"Hmm, I guess that means I need to spend more time with you," she just grinned back up at him.
Cassie was positive the headmaster was going to try to murder her next time. By the look on the man's face at dinner when he glanced at the Gryffindor table and saw his least favorite blackmailer sitting between Lavender Brown and Hermione Granger, he positively glowered in anger. Not that it was super noticeable, but Cassie knew his expressions. She'd studied the man when she looked up to him and when he had fallen in her esteem both. The current expression on his face was one of pure loathing. Yep, he was definitely going to try to murder her. She sighed and glanced to Neville who was also looking up at the head table, concern etched in his features. She figured she'd probably need to ask Snape for a couple bezoars to keep on hand…just in case.
So, that evening after changing into more practical clothes and with the intent of getting some bezoars and just to check in, Cassie set off towards the dungeons. She took the Marauder's Map with her and made sure the headmaster was safely pacing his office, probably planning her demise, before leaving the tower and hurrying to her godfather's chambers. With help from the map, she didn't run into anyone on the way, well that and she knew pretty much every secret passage in the castle, those on the map and a couple not on the map she'd found with the help of Dobby in fourth year.
True to his word, Snape had added her into his wards so that she just had to walk past them into his office and touch the bookcase to gain access. And, of course, she always did this without knocking or announcing her presence. He did it all the time himself, so she figured it was only fair. This time though, she knew something was immediately wrong when she entered.
"Bloody hell!" She gasped when she caught sight of her godfather, splayed out on the floor of his chambers, an empty vial beside him. "Severus! Severus! Wake up!" She pulled his head into her lap and tried to shake him awake.
After checking the vial and pulling Snape's eyelids back to check his pupils, Cassie concluded that he'd either poisoned himself accidentally or took the memory potion without telling her…what she'd clearly told him not to do. Based on the fact he was a Potions genius, she figured her guess about the memory potion was probably more realistic than him poisoning himself accidentally.
Cassie quickly pulled out her wand and levitated the unconscious man towards the room she guessed was his bedroom. It turned out the room was surprisingly comfortable. The walls were a light gray with white trim, the king sized bed had a large, white, fluffy comforter, and there even a couple dark blue and light yellow throw pillows on the bed. Cassie wondered if Snape might have a girlfriend…this seemed a bit too…decorative for the acerbic dungeon bat. She pulled back the covers and settled the floating man while engaging in her favorite pastime of swearing like a sailor in Parseltongue.
"If you ever wake up, I'm going to kill you," she grumbled as she tucked the man in whose brow was furrowed, depicting pain in the midst of his unconsciousness. After quickly summoning a flannel, she doused it in cool water from her wand and patted her godfather's brow with it. "I really hope your couch is comfortable because there's no way I'm leaving you like this," she remarked as a whimper escaped the man's deep coma. She really hoped the pain wasn't bad, even though she knew it was supposed to be excruciating.
Neville sat in his four-poster bed presumably reading a text on rare plants but really just smiling as he remembered his date. He couldn't believe how lucky he was that Cassie had transferred that year. He frowned though as the thought crept in that he would like to tell Harry about his day. His dormmate hadn't been extremely close to him, but every time Neville had something he wanted to tell someone, Harry was there, and he listened like whatever Neville was saying was the most important thing in the world. He'd always wanted to be that person that Harry came to, but he didn't think Harry had ever really confided in him. What if Harry was in trouble now? Did he have anyone he could talk to?
Neville's gran hadn't had much luck in tracking down his errant friend. After cornering the Delacours, Madam Longbottom had been persistent enough to learn that Harry was actually attending Durmstrang. They didn't have any contacts at that school, and there seemed to be something that Harry or the school had done to keep him from getting owls. Neville slowly smiled as he remembered a part of his day.
Remus and Cassie had communicated through patroni in Hogsmeade. They worked a lot differently than owls. Owls tracked magical signatures, but patroni tracked the caster's mental link to the person they sent it to. It relied solely on mind magic and the castor's knowledge of the person that would get the message. Neville thought it might work. Plus, Harry would be so impressed that he could cast a patronus now.
"Expecto Patronum…" he cast
Cassie was lying on Snape's couch. She'd had to run into his room three times already when he began screaming to stroke his back and talk calmly to him. It seemed to be the only thing that would get him to relax. She had a feeling it was going to be a very, very long night. She couldn't even imagine what he was remembering to cause this much pain, mental and physical. She was just dozing off to get a little sleep before her godfather started screaming again when a brilliant light blinked into existence in front of her.
She slowly rose and took in the sight of the cutest bear cub she'd ever seen. Her first thought was that Neville wanted to talk to her after their date, and that brought a huge smile to her face, until it opened its mouth.
"Hi, Harry," Neville's voice came from the patronus. "It's Neville! You like my patronus?! I hope you're doing well in Durmstrang, or wherever you are. Are you ok? I tried to send you a couple owls, and I've been a little worried. I know you've talked to Ron and Hermione some, but could you just let me know you're happy and doing well? We all miss you here."
Cassie sighed as the patronus disappeared. Even though the words were mild, Neville's worry was bleeding through. She had absolutely no clue how to handle this. She was very much not ready to tell him who she used to be. She knew it was probably irrational, but she also couldn't imagine that Neville would still want to be with her if he knew she'd been Harry Potter just months before. She might have had a crush on him the year before, but now, she was falling hard for him. She knew she'd need to tell him…preferably before he figured it out on his own. However, that would also necessitate telling him who her father really is since, if she let him in, she wanted to let him all the way in. That with the fact that she'd lived most of her life as a man would be a struggle for anyone to handle. The decision was going to have to wait though, Snape was screaming again in agony. She stood and ran to the other room, summoning the flannel again as she ran.
Up Next: Snape wakes up...