Chapter 4
Professor Snape's class was as bad as always. He seemed particuly mad at me that year. Jamie and Remy had it hard too. For some reason Jamie seemed to bear the full brunt of Snape's rage. We didn't know why.
Professor McGonagall class got more interesting and Professor Binns class got duller, if that's possible. The new teacher Professor Lupin was easily my favorite teacher. On our first day, we battled a boggart. We had so much fun in his class. Jamie and Remy loved his class. Remy seemed to be best at it though. One day I stayed behind to help clean up.
"Thanks for the help Cassi."
"No problem. Professor. Hey you never did tell me. How did you know my name?"
He smiled slightly. "I knew your dad in school. There is no way to mistake you. You look just like him." Everyone told me that, but coming from him , it seemed to mean more.
"Thanks." He glanced at the time.
"You'd better get to class. You'll be late."
On Halloween, we got proof that Sirius Black was nearby. He somehow got into Hogwarts and when he couldn't get into the Gryffindor common room, he slashed the fat lady. Thank god we were all down in the Great Hall. Who knows what would have happened if we were up there. We had to spend the night in the great hall. She was replaced by Sir Cadogan, an annoying knight wanna be, who made up impossibly hard passwords and challenged every other person to a duel.
"Hey you got a letter." Ginny pointed at it one day about a day before Christmas.
Dear Cassi,
I don't know why your mother insists on treating you like a child. If you want to know about you father then you deserve to know. You father is Sirius Black.
I want you to know, that in his own way, before he turned, your father loved you. He used to spend hours after he came home from work, just holding you. He thought you were the most beautiful creation, aside from your mother, in the world. He loved to make you laugh and he did that a lot. You loved him too. Dada was your first word.
I was there when you said it. He was going over some files with his friends and you just crawled right up to him and said it. His response was something along the lines of "Yes dear." A pause then "Oh my god!" You should have seen his jaw drop. He always did have a delayed reaction in his mind when it came to processing important information. His friends thought it was the funniest thing ever. But that was before we really knew him.
Of all the people, I never thought he could turn. He had resisted Voldemort so many times before. He joined with the man who killed our parents.
Yes, your' grandparents were killed by Voldemort. Mum right after we were born and Dad when we were thirteen. Sirius, himself fought Voldemort in his seventh year.
You should know first that your father's best friend was James Potter. Harry's father and Jamie's namesake. When Harry was about a year and three months and you were seven months, the Potters went into hiding. They used a charm. I don't know what it was called. But it involved a secret keeper.
Your father was their secret keeper. As long as he didn't talk, no one would know where they were hiding. But Voldemort found out. James and Lily were killed The only way for him to have found out where they were for Sirius to have told. I would have thought maybe he was tortured but the next day he was arrested by the ministry for killing all those muggles. And Peter. Poor little Peter. He hero worshipped James and your father. When Sirius turned James in, it was too much.. Sirius was sent to Azkaban for life. No one has ever escaped from there. Until now. I knew he escaped. He is my brother and my twin. I loved him and I love you because you are so much like him, and you are you're on self in your own way.
Cassi, I beg you not to look for him. When they found him, he was laughing. He was standing in the middle of that ruined street, with bodies all around him laughing. And twelve years in Azkaban will make anyone insane. That's what he must be by now. Cassi, insane.
I'm sorry you had to find out.. I'm sorry you never knew him like I did. He was the best person and the loyalist friend. I'm sorry.
Aunt Addi.
I stared in shock at the letter. Tears began to run down my face.
"Cassi? What's wrong?' Ginny asked. I couldn't answer. I ran from the Great hall and back up to my dorm. I threw myself down on my bed and cried. I cried and cried and cried. More questions formed in my mind. How could he do that? If he really loved me why did he turn? How could he do that to his best friends? And Harry, Oh gosh, what would I do the next time I saw Harry? I turned over in my bed. I couldn't believe he, my father, was Sirius Black. Where was the laughing, handsome, happy, man I dreamed about? He wasn't real. He never had been. And what would I tell Jamie and Remy? They would be crushed.
How do you know? A voice inside my head asked. What if , just what if, he was innocent? I brushed the thought aside, but it didn't go away. Somehow, deep down I knew he was.
Little did I know that in the boys dorm, Harry was thinking about my father too.
Christmas Eve Ginny and I sat by the fire watching it quietly. Harry and Ron were playing a game of chess and Hermione was watching them intently. Remy and Jamie were off causing some trouble somewhere.
I wondered if our fathers had ever done this. I wondered if my father had ever sat in this same chair and thought about things. I wondered how we used to spend Christmas, Mum and Da and me.
We went to bed.
The next morning, I awoke to a bouncing Ginny and a pile of presents. I got a book from Mum, The adventures of Merlin, the real story, and a very nice feather quill from Ginny, a box of dungbombs from Fred and George, a box of candy from my brothers, and a box of old wizarding photographs from Aunt Addi.
"Hey what's that?" Ginny pointed to a small wrapped present, under her pile of wrapping paper.
To Cassiopeia Shawna O'Connell Black.
With love
I shivered. Not many people knew my middle name. And who would write with love? I didn't recognize the handwriting
I opened the box and gasped.
Inside was a small locket. I opened it. Inside was a picture, of a man with long black hair and deep brown eyes, a woman with blond hair and blue eyes, and a baby with her father's black hair and dark eyes. They were all smiling. The man looked so happy. They were waving at me. I knew in an instant, this was my family. My mum and da, once upon a time. Da looked more like I had imagined him. Twelve years in prison had changed him so much. He no longer resembled this man.
Then I noticed the inscription.
Dear Cassi,
I just want you to know, that whatever happens
I love you.
Your father
Sirius Black
Who sent me this?
"Ginny, check the box, See if there's a name."
"Nope, nothing."
She took it from me.
"This is your father?" I nodded.
"Sirius Black is your father?"
"Please don't tell anyone. Ginny." She nodded.
"I promise." She held the locket gingerly. "It's beautiful. I think you should wear it." And she fastened it around my neck. It felt good there, like it belonged there. For the first time since I found out about my father, I smiled.
"Cassi! Cassi!" Jamie and Remy called as they burst into our dorm.
"What?"
"Look what we got." They held up an old manuscript.
We stared at it.
Before our eyes writing spread across the page.
Hello, young friends. I am the terror that huants your dreams! I am fear! I am that thing that lives under you beds, comes out late when you are alseep and-
Stop it Padfoot, you're going to scare them! By the way, I'm Prongs.
I am not, Prongs! So there
Oy, anyway hello young marauders.
If you have a knack for troublemaking. Moony here.
Or you're just bored
We have the solution right here
We do?Yes Wormtail.
Where?
This, you idiot!
Oh yeah.
ANYWAY! Uh Oh Prongs is getting crabby.Hehehe
IT"S NOT FUNNY, Padfoot! Moony!
I don't think they can answer you anymore, Prongs.
Shut up Wormtail. Stop laughing!
There was a apuse, then the parchment shook a bit.
Ow! That hurt, Prongs! I doubt poor Padfoot can even get up. But since I don't want you to hurt me anymore…Congratulations, young and future marauders.
You know that was not very nice. Oh man do not give me that look, that's your "I'm gonna hurt you" look. What was I saying? Oh yes. You hold in your hands the perfect guide to mischief making
Yeah, it's called
The Marauder's Guide to Mischief Making.
This will tell you everything you ever needed to know about causing trouble. Though you may want the map to go along.
But if you don't have it, since SOMEBODY lost it!!
Cough*Wormtail* cough
Shut up Moony.
That's okay, just don't get caught.
Well, have fun and we'll be back to cause trouble another day.
"Wow!" I gasped.
"Yeah, they've been fighting for about an hour, since we opened it."
"Who gave it to you?" they shrugged.
"There was no name." I frowned but then I showed them my necklace. They smiled at the picture of da.
The holidays ended and I decide to wear the necklace. Classes began and Snape hated me even more.
Well Gryffindor won its' game against Ravenclaw which put us back in the running for the Quiddich cup. With all the parties, you would have thought we had won the cup. We all went to bed around one. But later that night…
"ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" We ran downstairs. Ron was still yelling at his brother Percy.
"What is going on here?" McGonagall marched in. "I told you to go to bed." She was very angry.
"That's what I was just telling them Professor. My brother Ron just had a nightmare."
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME , HOLDING A KINFE!"
No one said anything. My breath caught in my throat. I reached out and held on to my locket. Jamie Remy and I exchanged glances.
Da, here?
"Don't be ridicules Weasly, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him. "Ron told her." Ask him if he saw-"
Professor McGonagall rushed out . We could hear her talking to Sir Cadogan. "Did you let a man into Gryffindor tower just now?"
"Certainly, good lady."
""YOU-you did? But the password!" She stammered.
"He had 'em. Had the whole weeks worth, my lady. Read 'em off a little piece of paper."(a/n. I copied that pretty much out of the book. This scene was already done I just did it through Cassi's eyes.)
The whole tower was in shock. My brothers stood in shock. As much as neither one wanted to admit they were, I think, even more shocked about Da's identity than I was. We spent another night in the Great Hall while the teachers searched for Da. Once again he escaped.