The four days until the start of a new school year passed by Cassie faster than a Firebolt

The four days until the start of a new school year passed by Cassie faster than a Firebolt. It seemed like only moments had passed since Sirius' nocturnal visit…Cassie hastily shoved the memory towards the back of her mind as she felt the heat rising in her cheeks. She attempted to return her attention to the Sorting, but found her eyes wandering towards the other teachers seated at the table. Ever since that first evening meal, an unspoken agreement seemed to have been made in regards to seating: no matter where the rest were seated, they all made sure that as much space as possible was kept between Snape and Cassie. She had a faint suspicion, judging from the ease with which they slipped into this pattern, that her predecessors had shared her distaste for the greasy haired potions master.

Glancing down at the last First Years awaiting Sorting, she watched as 'Wilcox, George!' was made a Gryffindor. Her eyes followed the small boy to his new House Table. He hesitated, unsure where to sit, when three of the older students shifted to give him room. One was a girl, rather plain looking, with bushy brown hair. The second looked like one of Arthur Weasley's kids—the flaming red hair and freckles made an unmistakable combination—and the third…

Cassie sucked in a sharp breath as a powerful rush of déjà vu washed over her. He looked exactly like James—right down to the unkempt black hair and small, round glasses. It had to be Harry Potter…Sirius' godson. Her throat constricted slightly, as she remembered the conversation she'd had with Lily after Harry had been born…

"So, Cassie…going back to California?"

Cassie shook her head. "No…even if I am sick of the food here," she grinned. "Benjy's staying, so I figure it won't hurt to hang around a while just to annoy him."

Lily shook her head. She wasn't fooled by the light tone: it was common knowledge that Cassie would block the Avada Kedavra for her cousin. "If you're staying…Cassie, you know we've named Sirius as Harry's godfather. I was wondering…if you would…do us the honor of being his godmother?"

Cassie's jaw slacked. "I—Lily, I'm honored. Really…but…" she hesitated, and grinned. "Sounds a little too old-womanish for me. Besides, people might start thinking Sirius and I were married, God forbid."

Lily laughed. "There're days when I think you should be—you know how well you get along."

"You're forgetting the minor fact that we've barely spoken since we graduated from Hogwarts."

Shrugging, Lily replied, "So go talk to him—it's not like your time's run out."

Drawing in a long breath, Cassie turned her gaze away from the boy at the Gryffindor table. Lily had been wrong—time had run out, much quicker than any of them could have guessed. How long until time ran out again? She could kill herself for not being there when Benjy had needed her most—she didn't want the same thing to happen with Sirius.

The next day, Cassie held her first class—and what a class it was. A wary, open-mouthed gaggle of first-years filled the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and as she began to explain what the class was all about, she felt the little confidence she'd had in her teaching abilities slowly begin to drain away. By lunch, she felt like she'd been through the wringer, and was dreading her next class: fifth year Gryffindors.

In they filed, and her spirits lifted somewhat: these, at least, looked like they might have an inkling of what was going on. A few, notably the red-haired boy she'd noticed the night before, looked oddly wary. No surprise there—this class had been playing musical teachers for the last four years.

Once everyone was seated, she began a role call. Having already seen Harry, she managed not to give in to another rush of déjà vu, but she couldn't help pausing over his name. She'd barely believed Sirius when he'd told her what the boy had been through, but as she glanced up from the register to his face, she decided that she might have underestimated—that is, if he'd inherited more from his father than his appearance.

"Ok…" she muttered as she reached the end of the scroll. Tossing it onto her desk, she decided to take a slightly different approach with this class—before she died of boredom. Ignoring the chair she'd been sitting in all morning, she perched herself on the edge of the broad wooden desk and surveyed the class.

"I'd rather not have to drag you through something you already know, so can anyone tell me, just briefly, what exactly you've covered?"

There was the usual pause for most students, but one girl near the front—Cassie recognized her as the one with the bushy brown hair from the Great Hall—nearly jumped out of her seat as her hand shot into the air. No one seemed surprised by this.

"All right, Ms…" Cassie paused, trying to recall the girl's name.

"Granger, Professor Crichton," the girl supplied eagerly.

Cassie gestured with one hand for her to continue.

Sounding as though she was reading a script, the girl began: "Professor, in our third year we covered hinkypunks, grindylows, werewolves—"

Cassie raised an eyebrow at that. Remus Lupin had been their third year teacher—she was surprised he'd allowed them to cover such a topic, considering his…condition. As she slowly tuned back in, she realized the girl was still reciting.

"…and in fourth year, we covered curses—all three of the Unforgivable curses, and the—"

"Thank you, Ms. Granger," Cassie interrupted dryly, "but when I asked for a summary, the key word was 'brief'." She got a faint chuckle out of the class at this. "Now…can anyone else give me a run-down of what you learned fourth year?"

Eventually, she managed to coax a timid-looking girl in the back into giving her the information she needed. With a satisfied nod, she hopped off the desk and began to pace the front of the class.

"Ok…sounds pretty thorough. This year, we'll be getting into the more theoretical side of things, and at some point I want to go over the more prominent Dark Wizards of this age." Noting several crestfallen expressions, she added, "I'll try and leave the more boring details to Professor Binns." A few more muted laughs ran through the room. "So…first things first…" pulling out her wand, she scribbled on the blackboard in large letters: "Locations".

"Can anyone guess where I'm going with this?"

Granger's hand popped up again.

"Yes, Ms. Granger?"

"You're referring to those magical sites which have been used in the past by Dark Wizards?"

Cassie nodded. "Right—most are known, but we're always discovering a few more. About three months ago, my team and I were sent out to explore one—the entire place was littered with booby traps."

A stocky looking boy in the second to last row queried tentatively, "Your…team, Professor?"

"I used to work for the Ministry of Magic—a cross between the Archeology—that's a Muggle profession that involves studying ancient ruins and artifacts--and the Aurors. Our job was studying the Dark Arts in all countries—we never actually engaged Dark Wizards, though."

Slightly encouraged by the rising interest in their faces, she plowed ahead. "Now…first I want to talk about one of the most infamous Dark sites in England today…Stonehenge. Can anyone give us some information on that?"

Cassie was not surprised when Granger's hand went up again. Seeing no one else had volunteered, she halted her pacing briefly. "Let me re-phrase the question—can anyone besides Ms. Granger give us some information on that?"

The girl blushed and lowered her hand. Cassie felt no remorse though, as a few people tentatively decided to give it a shot, now that Hermione was no longer in the running.

The rest of the class ran smoothly from then on, as did the ones that followed it. When dinner finally rolled around, Cassie was in a much better frame of mind than she'd been that morning. This teaching gig was turning out easier than she'd thought. She stepped cheerily into the Great Hall…and the first thing that met her gaze was the cold glare of Severus Snape.

Ok…so there was a downside after all.

The months flew by for Cassie. Her favorites classes were by far the Gryffindor fifth years, and from what she'd heard, they were just as enthusiastic. The only shadow over the next two months was Sirius—or rather, his absence.

Only three letters, and all of them brief, since the night he'd come to see her. She was beginning to regret her demand that he stay away, even if she knew it was best for him—though it certainly wasn't the most pleasant thing for her. Her insomnia was slowly fading, but she still lay awake some nights, tossing and turning with the unpleasant company of unwelcome memories. On such nights, she had taken to wandering the castle halls, perhaps hoping to outrun the guilt that tailed her every step.

It was a few hours before dawn, on one of her frequent nocturnal strolls, when she suddenly found herself in an unfamiliar part of the castle. This wasn't entirely unusual, but curiosity pushed her feet forward anyway. Finally, she reached the end of the dusty, darkened hall, and found herself standing before a nondescript wooden door. Reaching for the handle, she found it unlocked. Without hesitation, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected to find, but it was not what stood before her now. An abandoned classroom, with few desks and no chairs…and a mirror. Wondering what on earth this fancily framed thing was doing here in the dark, she moved tentatively towards it. There was an inscription on it…the word 'Erised' stood out in her mind, for some reason. She peered closer to the glass.

Suddenly, she leapt back, a scream threatening to tear its way out of her throat. Trembling uncontrollably, she felt her erratic heartbeat hammering an insane rhythm against her ribcage. Half sobbing, she crept forward and dropped to her knees in front of the mirror—face to face with Benjy.

Her cousin looked exactly like her last mental image of him—an image that now seared itself across her memory like a white-hot iron. He was smiling at her—why? She'd betrayed him, hadn't been there in time—and he had an arm around her shoulder. Nervously, Cassie glanced behind her. Turning back to the mirror, she stared longingly at her cousin.

"I'm sorry." Words began to tumble from her lips before she had chance to stop them. "I wanted to be there. We were…hell; I wasn't that busy…if I'd only…" she paused. "Screw it," she finally announced. "Benjy, I'm beating myself over the head here," she whispered, tentatively reaching out to touch the mirror-hand on her shoulder. "I need advice. You were the one always hanging out with James and Sirius…where would he go? I have to see him; I don't care how screwy that sounds. God, I never thought…when you see other people in love, you're like, 'That's not gonna happen to me'. And then it does happen to you, and I'm going crazy, because whenever I see him I know I'd let him do anything to me. It scares me…I'm not in control." She laughed harshly. "I'm also around the bend, if I'm talking to a reflection."

Again, she reached out to touch the mirror, where her cousin's hand rested on her shoulder. She blinked in surprise. Why was she wearing a ring on her left han—

It took a split second for her to realize whose wedding ring her mirror image was wearing. Angrily she dashed a hand across her face, trying to clear her vision of the tears. Then, she realized she wasn't alone.

Pushing herself to her feet, she spun around. Blinking at the shadowy figure—the only light source came from the hallway—she was about to speak, when he saved her the trouble

"Sleepless night?"

Snape. Oh God…Cassie felt, at that moment, that she'd rather endure the Cruciatus Curse until it killed her than stand there holding back tears in front of what she considered the lowest piece of scum the earth could concoct. Her embarrassment and anger made her tone ever more harsh as she snarled, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

It was only when he stepped into the room and away from the door that she could see his face, which she realized was devoid of it's usual sneer. In fact, he looked strangely calm.

"Despite what you obviously believe, I'm not here to mock you."

"Yeah, right," Cassie said bitterly. "So what are you doing here?" As she spoke, she abruptly remembered where she knew the word 'Erised' from. "Come to have a look in the mirror so you can see the Dark Lord rise to power again?"

He stiffened at her implication that his deepest desire was to see Voldemort rise again. "I'm not one of his followers anymore."

He sounded sincere, and for an instant she was tempted by the insane desire to accept his words. Then, her perception of reality reasserted itself. "Yes, and I'm sure we can all see what a fabulous effect it's had on your personality." The words were hollow even to her ears. All she wanted was to be left in peace, in the dark, alone with her grief.

Snape simply stared her down in silence. Ineffectual rage heated her blood to fever pitch as she searched in vain for some sort of sarcasm, a barb to tear away his infuriatingly calm mask. No inspiration came, and each continued to watch the other for a moment.

"Sleep well, Cassie."

Cassie blinked, and opened her mouth to reply—but he was already gone, and she could barely hear the swish of his cloak and the sound of his footsteps as he disappeared down the hall. Silently she contemplated the sympathetic, smiling image of her cousin. When the silence became so heavy she thought her sanity might be crushed by it, she stood and walked out without a backward glance.

Hand frozen, halfway towards the door to the small country home, Cassie reflected on the wisdom of being here. The Christmas exams were over, and school was finally out for both teachers and students. Not a single word from Sirius the entire time. So she had come here, instead: to Remus Lupin's house. It was logical, actually…if anyone knew where to find Sirius, Remus would. Yet…he hadn't written her, hadn't contacted her. Did he even want to see her?

Cassie frowned. She hated this insecurity. So she knocked on the door and held her breath, hoping she'd been right and that Remus could tell her where Sirius was.

Warily, the familiar head of salt-and-pepper hair peered out around the doorframe. Remus narrowed his eyes as he recognized her, and Cassie flinched. Then, he smiled—she started to breath again.

"Cassie…come in, please." He opened the door wider, and she stepped inside. It was a small, modest place, which didn't surprise Cassie in the least. Gesturing her to a seat on the rather battered couch, he settled into the armchair across.

"Can I get you anything?"

She shook her head. "No…I'm fine, thanks."

"He's here."

She momentarily stopped breathing again. "Wha—where—here?" She didn't even try to stop her eyes from widening, and she was fully aware that her mouth was slightly agape. Remus smiled.

"The man's been impossible to talk to—when he isn't worrying about Harry, he's thinking of you. It makes for a rather absent minded conversation." Grinning, he added, "He wouldn't say anything, but I knew something was on his mind…one day I caught him writing a letter to you. He was agonizing over whether he'd said too much or too little, and he finally decided it'd be better to wait and visit you over the holidays in person."

Lupin's eyes suddenly focused on something just behind her, and his expression sobered slightly. Turning, Cassie found herself face to face with Sirius. For an instant, she simply sat there, and he simply stood, both impassive and seemingly blank. Then—

--he was kissing her. How the hell did he get me off the couch so fast?, she thought dizzily. All she knew was that one moment, she'd been sitting, and the next she was in his arms, being kissed breathless. The world spun, melted, and reformed itself in that brief stretch of eternity—it was like she'd taken a shot of pure ecstasy. She was on a world-class high, and she wasn't coming down any time soon.

Slowly, he pulled away. Breathing heavily, feeling as though she'd just had life support cut off, she stood helplessly for a second. Staring up into his incredibly deep, dark eyes, she wondered vaguely how idiotic she must look.

Remus cleared his throat. "Padfoot, if you're going to romance her, perhaps I should leave?"

Cassie jerked away from Sirius guiltily, realizing what a show they'd been putting on. Sirius, however, grinned unabashedly. "I don't mind an audience, but for the sake of the lady…" he rested a hand on her arm. "We'll leave."

She didn't even ask where he was taking her; she simply accepted the fact that wherever it was, she would follow. It was puppyish, simpering, and in some logical part of her mind, pathetic—it was also an undeniable fact.