Chapter 67
Dumbledore's Plan

Cassie awoke the next morning to the muted gray light that told her the last few days of clear blue skies had come to an end and that Boxing Day was going to be cloudy and rainy. She groaned and sat up. Hermione was standing by her bed, packing a small overnight bag.

"Good morning. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. But Ron isn't. I just saw him out in the hall and I think he would rather face a horde of Death Eaters than go to my parents' house for the day."

"Why? I thought he got along well enough with them?"

"Well, he does. I mean as well as someone can get along with two people they don't know very well and whom he has nothing in common with."

"That's not true." Hermione's brow knitted and she looked at Cassie with vague confusion.

"What?"

"It's not true that they have nothing in common. As I see it, they have one very big thing in common - although that might be why he's so nervous." Hermione didn't look any more enlightened. "Oh, silly. They all love you, very much. And Ron is afraid that . . ."

" . . .That he's somehow encroaching on their territory and that they resent him for it." Hermione finished her sentence, a grin slowly growing on her face.

"And they probably do. But you know what? Every parent has to come to that moment of realization and accept it."

Hermione laughed. "You're pretty smart, for a kid."

"Thanks. But it just dawned on me, myself. Now, if I was just brave enough to tell my parents that about George, maybe I could get somewhere." The two girls smiled at each other. "And don't think I didn't notice that kid remark, by the way." Hermione did a quick shrinking charm on the bag and stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans.

"I was just teasing you."

"How are you getting there?"

"Apparating. It's the easiest. Hardest to trace, too. I don't know if it's a good idea to go, but . . . my parents wouldn't take no for an answer." She sighed. "It's hard to know how far to push things. If I told them that everyone is in danger of dying if the Burrow is found, they would get upset, naturally. But if I just told them that it's not convenient to come, they get their feelings hurt. So, I have to find some happy medium and usually that means I get talked into doing things that are not really a good idea. It's the same thing over and over again, every time." Cassie grimaced.

"What do your parents know about . . . Voldemort and everything? I mean, how do you explain it to them?"

"I've tried to tell them. I think they understand pretty well. They have to now because they were attacked and everything, remember?"

"That must have frightened them."

"Yeah. It did."

"How do they-" A pounding on the door interrupted Cassie's next question and she sighed to herself. She had a lot of questions for Hermione. The deeper she got in her relationship with George, the more questions she had for her because the was the one whose situation most closely resembled her own. Not that it was anywhere really close, but it was the best she could do. "You better go. It sounds like Ron is anxious to get this over with."

"Mmmm. We'll be back tomorrow morning. Have fun without us." She opened the door and Ron said something Cassie couldn't here. She did get a good look at his face, though, and it did look decidedly green.

"Come on, Hermione. You know your parents want us there for breakfast." Hermione smiled at Cassie and stepped out the door, shutting it behind her. Cassie lay back on her bed, staring through the crack in the curtains at the watery sunlight. She hoped she would be able to go back to sleep, but after 15 minutes, she realized that was not going to happen. She got up, stretched, and pulled on her bathrobe. Miraculously, there was no one either in the bathroom or waiting to get into it so she stepped in and took a nice long shower, a luxury she had not allowed herself in the week since Ginny, Hermione, Harry, and Ron had arrived from Hogwarts. She dressed in another of her new outfits this morning and it was while she was buttoning up her new blouse that Ginny woke up. She stretched and sat up, but Cassie noted with some concern, that she had dark circles under her eyes. Cassie did some quick calculations. She had been in bed for approximately 9 hours. She shouldn't be tired.

"Are you okay, Ginny?"

"Oh, yeah. Same as usual."

"Uh, what does that mean?"

"I didn't sleep too well. Sometimes I have nightmares. Nothing to worry about."

"You sure?" Ginny nodded.

"What are our plans for today? Did you and George have anything going on?"

"Not that I know of." Ginny got up with a grimace and 30 minutes later, both girls headed downstairs to see what Molly wanted them to do.

In all the years that she could remember, Cassie had loved the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. It always seemed to her, even when she was very young, to be one of the more relaxing weeks of the year. The chaos of the Christmas preparations had passed and you had a whole pile of great new stuff to keep yourself from getting bored. But not much was expected of you. School was out, of course, and some years her dad hadn't even had to work. The entire world seemed to take a deep calming breath before starting regular life again.

This week at the Burrow was to a great degree much like that. At least for Cassie. Things were going on, that became very obvious as the days crawled by, but in some strange way, she observed them from afar, not getting too involved - even though she knew that she was one of the main players in the script everyone else was reading from. She knew instinctively that George was shielding her to a great degree from the outside world and she was content to let him do so. Maybe this was selfish of her, but she couldn't seem to bring herself to protest.

There were, naturally, a few highlights of the days and by Tuesday night, the glass walls that seemed to encase her while still letting her see everyone else moving around had shattered into a million pieces and she was dragged kicking and screaming back out onto the stage to play out her role, finish the drama, close the play.

But that morning as she and Ginny descended the steps, she had no idea what the week would bring. If she had, maybe she would have turned around and run back upstairs. "Fred! You're back! Wonderful." Ginny hugged her older brother and Fred winked at Cassie over her head. "It's too bad you missed Ron. Now he's at his girlfriend's house. I bet he could have used some advice."

"I could Floo him with one big piece that I learned by sad experience." He sounded solemn but Cassie knew he was kidding around.

"What's that?"

"Don't snog your girlfriend so passionately that you forget you're at her house and her parents could walk in on you. Even though Hermione's parents are Muggles and can't hex him with the full-body bind, I bet Mrs. Granger is handy with a frying pan."

"That's good advice."

"Thought so. Wish someone had thought to pass it on to me."

"Hey, Fred! How's Angelina doing?" George descended the steps and slipped his arms around Cassie. Ginny smiled at the window and opened the door for Harry, who came in carrying his broomstick with very wet hair and the two of them slipped into a private conversation that excluded everyone else in the room. Cassie turned her attention back to the red-headed twins.

"She's good. Her parents were very nice to me. Almost too nice. I kept thinking I was missing something and kept looking over to my shoulder to see what curses they were aiming my direction."

"Did you have a chance to ask her? What did she say?"

"I wanted to. I was all ready, but I never did. I think I'm going to wait."

"Ask her what? Wait for what?" Fred raised an eyebrow at Cassie.

"I didn't know you were so good at keeping secrets, George. You can tell her. I'm going upstairs."

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"Already did. I'm going to go lay down."

"What's going on, George?" Cassie looked into George's troubled face.

"He wanted to ask her to marry him. He had the ring and everything. But I guess he felt like she would say no."

"What? But she's crazy for him." It was only later that day after George had talked to Fred privately for the greater part of an hour that Cassie's suspicions were confirmed. Angelina was crazy for Fred and probably would have said yes before Fred could even finish stammering out the question. But he had told George that sitting there in her parents' house, he had decided he didn't want to bring her further into the conflict than she already was. He was, and he knew it, a big target. Hell, his whole family were targets and right now they were also wanted by the Ministry as criminals. What did he have to offer her? When George told her this as they sat on the couch before dinner, Cassie wanted to run upstairs and tell Fred he was being stupid but George told her in no uncertain terms that she was not to interfere. That this was something Fred needed to figure out for himself.

Saturday Ron and Hermione returned from their visit and Ron exclaimed his pleasure at being back in the burrow with great enthusiasm. Hermione pursed her lips. "It wasn't that bad, Ron. Honestly, you act like you can't stand them."

"I like your parents, it's just hard to not do magic, you know. It's confining."

"Yeah. Right." Hermione shook her head at Ginny and lowered her voice so that only Cassie and Ginny could hear her. "He's 17 and they're parents of a witch. I did magic several times while I was there. He just gets so nervous that he couldn't cast a summoning charm. He tried once to lock the study door so we could kiss. He set the door on fire." All three girls laughed and Ron's ears turned bright red, probably guessing what they were laughing about. "Don't tell the boys, though. He'll never hear the end of it if they find out."

Saturday afternoon was dreary and overcast and Cassie wanted to spend it curled up with George somewhere by a fire with a good book. He, however, was busy with Order business, he said, and was apparating in and out of the Burrow several times. When they sat down to dinner that evening, two people Cassie had only met briefly were there, too, because they were in the middle of having a meeting with Molly, Arthur, Remus, Tonks, Fred, George, and Charlie. Things were starting to happen. Cassie could feel it. Kingsley Shacklebolt was very pleasant and he told Cassie that he had met with her parents only the day before and that they were well. The other man, Mad-Eye Moody, was more disconcerting. He kept looking around the table with his normal small dark eye but kept the bright blue one trained on her during the entire meal. Professor Dumbledore came after dinner and sat in on the meeting, which Cassie desperately wished she could attend.

"Be grateful you can't, Cassie. I used to want to know everything, but now ignorance is bliss and all that." Harry stared into the fire and tightened his grip on Ginny's hand. "It's when they want you to know what's going on that you have to worry. That means they want you to do something."

"I thought you wanted to get rid of Voldemort." Ron flinched at Cassie's casual use of the name, coming as it was sort of out of the blue.

"I do." Harry didn't elaborate and Cassie didn't press him. She didn't know how much he had ever told the others about the prophecy concerning his connection with the dark wizard. She knew the Order members were aware of it, but she had gotten the impression from him that they were all sworn to secrecy.

Professor Snape came back to the Burrow on Sunday, accompanied by a woman named Hestia Jones. They were both agitated and it didn't seem to be from fear of what George and Fred would do to them. In fact, the woman seemed to like all the Weasleys, and hugged everyone within reach. Professor Snape had his usual scowl on his face as he surveyed them. "Where's your father?"he barked at Charlie who pinched his lips but didn't say anything rude in return, which Cassie thought was pretty noble of him.

"Upstairs. I'll get him."

"I thought you should know, Arthur, that the Aurors have picked up their search for us again. And they're particularly looking in North Umbria." Arthur's face leeched color and he sat down hard into a chair that Fred practically shoved under him as he was already headed toward the ground.

"Oh." The silence in the room was complete. It took Cassie quite a few minutes to remember that North Umbria was the location Tonks had "given" to Percy on Christmas Eve for the new Order headquarters. They had tricked him in case he went back and blabbed to the Ministry. Their fears, it seemed, were well-founded.

"The bloody prat," George muttered under his breath. Cassie squeezed his hand in support but her stomach was somewhere in her big toe. If he had talked about that, it was likely he had talked about her as well.

"Tell them the rest, Severus." Professor Snape looked as Hestia Jones as though she was a particularly disgusting furry bunny.

"Fine. Fudge is getting better. He should be leaving St. Mungo's within the day. If Miss . . ." Snape's eyes snapped toward Cassie with the familiar loathing in their black depths. " . . . Spencer/Robinson, whatever her name is today, if she is correct that Nightscall is involved, this could be a very dangerous moment for us all."

"I-"

"Oh, think man! Nightscall only has one more day to finish doing whatever he's going to do before Furdge returns. And I don't have to tell you that along with whatever else he's got planned, killing your little Muggle guest is high on his list." George growled and every muscle of his body tensed up. Cassie at first thought it was a reaction to the tone of voice he had used toward Arthur, but when no one else did more than frown, she realized it was probably more to do with his statement about her.

"Severus!" Hestia Jones stared at Professor Snape with fire in her eyes. "You have all the diplomatic skills of a mountain troll. Honestly!" She turned to Arthur and now Molly who had just entered the kitchen. "We think it's possible that the attack at the ball was interrupted and thus was not finished. Fudge may have been supposed to die. So, if Nightscall is desperate enough to hold onto his power, he may try again. Albus thinks we need to post guards. But . . ."

"Who? None of us can show our faces out of doors, much less at St. Mungo's. And it's not like he would welcome any of us with open arms. We aren't exactly friends."

"Then it seems obvious to all of us, that it's going to have to be an invisible patrol, doesn't it?" Professor Snape had certainly mastered the art of sarcasm. "And Miss Robinson here has got to identify the last two wizards at that little meeting. Things are coming to a head and we're really out of time for her to indulge in the luxury of forgetfulness." His eyes raked over her once again but Cassie noticed that he did not try to probe her brain. He had at least learned that that would get him nowhere.

Cassie opened her mouth to protest his assumption that she was enjoying this luxury of forgetfulness. For one thing, she hadn't forgotten anything, just was incapable of transferring that memory to anyone else. But she didn't have a chance, because Professor Snape nodded curtly at Arthur and then disapparated out of the Burrow. Hestia scowled at the empty space where the Potion Master had stood only a split-second before.

"We'll be starting patrols immediately. We need to keep Fudge alive for at least five more days. Here's the schedule. Here's Moody's invisibility cloak. The hall outside his room at the hospital is quiet and you can sit there for hours with no one noticing. Albus will be here tomorrow after dinner, he said, to discuss something else with you. Goodnight. And I'm sorry about Percy. I've always liked him." And then, she was gone too.

Cassie never saw the schedule of who was patrolling and when. She preferred it that way. George and Fred went into work on Monday morning and she thought it was likely that they were taking turns during the day. Arthur and Molly and Bill for that matter (who had finally arrived back from France looking rested and happy) could have taken turns on Monday very easily without Cassie even knowing, she decided. Ginny, Hermione, and Cassie as well as Ron and Harry kept to themselves most of the day doing homework. Well, Cassie didn't do homework, of course. She just watched everyone else do it under Hermione's supervision.

"We've only got one more week before we go back to school. It's N.E.W.T year, Ron. Anything you study now will be very helpful later on." Ron and Harry seemed resigned to her bullying and dutifully copied down the study schedule she had prepared for them for the next six months. Ginny hid her smile behind a transfiguration essay that she was working on. Hermione was nagging her, too, but since it wasn't her N.E.W.T. year, it didn't have quite the desperate tone that the boys were getting.

Cassie was quizzing Harry on common potion ingredients when he stopped reciting and looked at her. "What are you doing about your school?" Cassie blinked at him.

"What?"

"You're missing school for this." This statement was made as though the thought had never crossed his mind before.

"Of course."

"Well, what are you doing about it?"

"Have a lot of makeup work, I guess. I get good grades, so most of the teachers are pretty willing to work with me. But if this stretches on for too much longer past this week, I don't know what I'm going to do, really. I don't want to fail the entire year."

"What sort of classes do Muggles take at school, anyway?" Ron asked with more enthusiasm than he probably would normally have shown on the subject. Cassie knew that he was just trying to stall from the task Hermione had set him of writing down every charm they knew.

"I take maths, literature, chemistry, history and government, and French.

"What's chem . . . chemistry?" Ron pretended he didn't see Hermione's pointed glance at the paper he was holding.

"Sort of like potions. But no magic. We make stuff, or talk about making stuff, to see how the different elements interact with each other."

"And the elements are earth, fire, water, and air, right?"

"Ron! Honestly! Stop stalling." Hermione scowled.

"No. That's all right, Hermione. I'll tell him quickly. Elements are actually the basic building blocks of all things on earth, Ron." Cassie supplied. "You know, the basic atomic level of all matter." Ron nodded, trying to look like he knew what she was talking about. Cassie tried to explain further. "Like water, for example. It's not an element because it can be broken into smaller pieces." Ron looked even more confused and Cassie could tell this was way out of his league. And she didn't know how to start explaining it to him. "Water is actually made up of two other elements, hydrogen and oxygen, and if you take two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule and put them together, you get one atom of water." Cassie literally saw Ron's eyes glaze over and she sighed. "Well, it makes sense when you take the class. I like it."

She turned back to the list in her hand and started quizzing Harry again. To her surprise, it was Hermione who broke into her task the next time. "So, Cassie. What are your plans when you finish school in a year or so?"

"I hadn't really decided. I had thought maybe I would get a teaching certificate. But now I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess I'll see what else happens." Molly called them down an hour later for dinner and they all were grateful for the respite from the homework. All but Hermione, that is.

George and Fred apparated into the kitchen after dinner had already started and they both looked weary as they scooped stew into their bowls. "I just want to tell you again, Cassie, that gift certificate idea of yours was brill!" said Fred when he finally stopped shoveling food into his mouth. "We were absolutely packed full today."

"Great!"

"And they did just what you said they'd do. They'd bring in a certificate for a certain amount and wind up spending a lot more to get something they really wanted. And everyone was happy because they didn't have to try to get to 15 other stores before the shops closed. And they placed special orders that wouldn't be ready for a while because the deadline of Christmas is not an issue." George grimaced as Fred's recitation wound down.

"I was going to tell her, Fred. Thanks." Cassie looked at George and grinned.

"It's okay. I'm just glad they worked out."

"Hey, we need to come in and trade our certificates in, too," Ron remembered. "Cassie gave them to me and Harry for Christmas."

"Why don't you come in on Wednesday? We're going to be having an end-of-the year sale that day and your money will go further."

"Hey, okay. We'll do that." Ron looked enthusiastically at his brothers and Cassie shook her head in pity. It was obvious to her that this was a bit of a ploy to get the two boys into the shop. They were going to recruit them to help run the till that day. She knew it without even having to ask. How convenient for them - unpaid help that just happened to show up on the day they were needed.

Everyone lapsed into silence after that. There was an almost tangible feeling of sorrow at the table. Molly and Arthur had been quiet ever since the night before when Professor Snape had announced that Percy had betrayed them yet again and Cassie knew that this sort of pain was deep and would take a long time to heal. Cassie knew the silence was also partly due to the fact that Professor Dumbledore would be coming after dinner to talk to her about something. The fact she had needed a day's advance notice did not bode well for any hope that this was about something pleasant. When he did arrive, he smiled around at each of them, but Cassie could sense that behind the smile was some deep concern. Everyone went into the living room, where they all sat down, waiting for his news.

"Fudge has taken a bit of a downturn. We thought he might be being cursed or poisoned, but upon further investigation that does not seem to be the case. The healers still assure me that he will be out tomorrow. So, one more day of patrols. We'll do a repeat of today's schedule if that's okay with all of you." Everyone nodded. Professor Dumbledore looked at Cassie and took a deep breath. She knew that the time had come for the bad news for her. She just hoped it wasn't too terrible.

"The Ministry under Nightscall has increased their activities in the last few days, both with the Muggle government and with the Aurors. Mr. Robinson has expressed concern with the Prime Minister's behavior which is apparently growing more and more erratic. Death Eaters have been seen moving in areas in the daylight where they never would have dared before. They have even moved around with Muggles nearby and there are rumors of Dementors starting to surface."

"But none of the people at the meeting were Death Eaters!" Cassie exclaimed. She had looked at every photograph of known Death Eaters and none of them had looked familiar.

"No, Miss Robinson. None of the ones you did not know were recognized as Death Eaters. But there was most certainly one there." Suddenly, Cassie remembered and she flushed bright red in embarrassment.

"Oh, yeah. Malfoy. Of course."

"He was their liaison, obviously. Since they have been able to move forward with their plans with virtually no disruption, we must assume that they are somehow involved and that Tom Riddle is involved in this somehow." He cleared his throat delicately. "The sad fact of the matter is that we have no more possibilities to suggest for the last two wizards we are trying to identify and we are quite plainly out of time. It is critical now as never before that we know the other two who were present at that meeting." Cassie gulped. She didn't think this sounded like it was going to be pleasant at all.

"But what can you do? You can't force her to remember!" George spoke up, anger radiating through his voice.

"I remember! I haven't forgotten! I just can't describe them well enough to . . ."

"My potion is ready."

"Oh." Cassie was the only one who said anything.

"What potion?" everyone asked at once.

"It is called a recordatiunio potion. It will strengthen Miss Robinson's mind, allow us to-"

"Strengthen her mind? What does that mean?" George's voice was the loudest, but not the only one asking that question. Professor Dumbledore smiled at George and then at Cassie.

"Have you ever heard of a pensieve?"

"No. What's that?" Cassie didn't think it sounded very nice.

"It's a device - a storage device, so to speak. They're not exactly common, but not rare, either. They store memories."

"Memories?"

"Yes. You can actually physically remove memories from your brain and put them in this basin . . ." Cassie couldn't help it. She started laughing but she stopped quickly when she realized that no one else was even smiling.

"You can . . . remove memories?"

"Yes. And then you can view them as you wish by simply looking into the basin."

"But a memory isn't a thing. It's just a collection of neural connections going on traveled paths in the synapses of your brain. You can't just 'remove' a memory."

"And you cannot blink and find yourself in a completely different place. Yet, somehow, you have done that. And I believe that you quite like to fly."

"Well, that's different."

"Not really. But I didn't come to discuss that at the moment." His voice was patient. "Once the memory is removed, it can be viewed by anyone else in the room. Had you been a witch with the memory in your brain of that meeting, I would have simply pulled out my pensieve, removed your memory, and looked at it with you."

"Why didn't we think of that weeks ago?" Harry stood up with an enthusiastic shout.

"Muggles can't use pensieves." Hermione stated matter-of -factly. "They go mad."

"Yes." Dumbledore's smile this time was grim, but resigned. "They do go mad, inevitably. Unless they take a potion that strengthens their mind so that the memories can be removed safely. It's not pleasant, still, but it is safe."

"No!" George stood up and it was not with Harry's enthusiasm. He physically moved between Professor Dumbledore and Cassie. "Absolutely not!"

"The potion takes three weeks to brew, but-" At that, total chaos erupted in the room. Cassie stared around, wondering what everyone was upset about.

"You've known all along that you were going to do this?!" Harry looked the angriest, next to George, who simply looked like the top of his head was going to come off.

"Well, I-"

"You've been riding her this whole time, trying to force her to remember-"

"You sent her down Knockturn Alley!"

"You -"

"Shut up! Everyone!" Cassie stood up on her chair so she could be seen over George, who had pulled out his wand and was starting to brandish it like a sword at everyone else in the room. "If this is what we need to do, then-"

The noise level, which has gone to 0 for a second, suddenly increased to an even louder level than before. Cassie couldn't even tell, now, who was yelling about what. She climbed down from her chair and pushed George aside. He grabbed her arm, but she wrenched it out of his grasp and ran over to the headmaster. "When and where? I want to do this." Suddenly it was dead quiet in the room and every eye was fixed on her.

"I have it arranged for Wednesday morning at 10. I have arranged for reliable witnesses to view the memory. We will meet at Hogwarts. With the students gone, it is peaceful there, and secure." He smiled down at her. "I do not want you to go in uninformed. I am sure Miss Granger can discuss the risks of the potion and I am sure that others will be certain you know of the physical risks. If you change your mind, then that it is understandable. I hope to see you Wednesday morning, Miss Robinson." He smiled faintly, nodded to everyone else in the room, and stood. "I must be getting back to school. Thank you for allowing me into your home again, Arthur, Molly." And then he strode into the kitchen and there was no pop when he disapparated.