Chapter 68
Of Potions and Pensieves
They all looked at each other with a certain sense of unreality. Had he really come and said that,
told them that, and then left? Cassie's gaze met George's and he looked back at her. His eyes
narrowed.
"I can't believe you told him you'd do it. Sometimes I wonder if you haven't already gone mad."
"Thanks." Cassie glared back. "I have a day to decide. So I haven't completely gone mental."
"He may have told you that, but you know as well as I do that he's planning on your coming. He
knows you." Hermione glanced between the two of them.
"Before you two come to blows, I think we should do a little investigating into exactly what
Dumbledore is planning on giving her. He wouldn't ever want to hurt her, and I'm willing to give
him the benefit of the doubt." She looked at Molly and Arthur. "Do you know anything more
about this? Have you ever heard of this before?"
Both of them shrugged helplessly. "This is the first we've heard of it." Molly flushed. "And I've
always been horrid at potions. But I'm sure I've never heard of that one he mentioned. Arthur,
what about you?"
"No. Sorry. But I second Hermione's confidence that Albus would never do anything to hurt
Cassie."
"Intentionally." Harry said and every eye turned toward him. "Well, mistakes happen. And he's not
a god. He has made them. He's made them with me." There was silence for a minute and he
sighed loudly. "Why don't we have Hermione look up the potion and we'll let Cassie decide. We
do have about 36 hours. We don't need to make the decision right this second."
Cassie smiled around at the group and wished that Remus and Tonks had been here for dinner
rather than out on Order business. She would have welcomed Remus' opinion on this. Well, she
could always ask him tomorrow. Tonks's opinion she was a little less sure about, but the Auror
had a good heart, so she would also listen to her ideas on whether this was a good idea. But at the
moment, she only had her friends' opinions to go on. They had always been good in the past, so
she would listen, and then make up her own mind. Everyone knew that there was no use sitting
around making small talk. All everyone really wanted to do was talk about the potion and the
pensieve.
So, after bidding Molly and Arthur good night, everyone adjourned up to the girls' room, where,
while Hermione frantically started searching through her stack of textbooks, the rest of them
looked at each other, wondering where to start. They were arranged on the beds basically the
same way they had been when they had talked the night the others had arrived from school. The
only difference was that this time it was George sitting on Ginny's bed with Cassie, Ginny, and
Harry and Fred was sitting next to Ron, who looked steadily at Hermione as though willing her to
find what she was looking for and come sit next to him so they could cuddle. George was leaning
against the headboard, his long legs spread out in front of him and Cassie was tucked under his
arm, leaning against his shoulder. Harry and Ginny were sitting next to each other on the bed, but
Harry's nervous energy was keeping them from cuddling, or at least that was Cassie's guess.
"Um, well I guess the first and most obvious question is what's a pensieve and how does it work?"
Everyone looked at Hermione now, who was pulling another big stack of textbooks out of her
trunk.
"I've never seen one or used one. I only know the theory," she muttered, flipping through a book
quickly, clouds of dust rising from the pages as they turned. Harry grunted.
"I've seen one used. I've been in one twice."
"You've been in one?" Cassie shook her head. "I . . . hadn't pictured them as that big."
"They're not. I mean, I've been in one . . . but not physically. They're only about this big." Harry
held up his hands to indicate the size of a large dinner plate. "And about this deep." He held one
hand against the bed and the other about four inches above it.
"So you've been in one how, exactly?"
"Mentally. You can go into the memories inside them and it's like you're living them. It's hard to
explain, but that's what happens. You see . . . whoever's memory it is, but it's like it happening all
around you." Cassie looked at George, wondering if he was as confused as she was from Harry's
explanation. She was sure it made since to him, but she didn't understand anything he was saying.
George looked upset, but it was the same look he had had on his face since Dumbledore had left,
so she couldn't really tell.
"Could you start at the beginning, please? And act like I'm about 2 and don't know anything. Use
small words." Everyone laughed, but Harry started over.
"Okay, the first time I even saw a pensieve was in Dumbledore's office. It was in a cupboard and
it had this shiny, silvery light coming out of it, and I wanted to know what was making that funny
light, so I looked in there and there was this bowl, with all these funny carvings on it. It was
pretty, but what was really interesting was this liquid, floating around in there. It looked like
melted silver, but with a different consistency. I can't really explain it. Anyway, so I looked down
into this liquid and I bent closer and closer because it's like you can sort of see shadows moving in
there, but not quite. And then my nose touched the liquid and suddenly I was looking down into
this big room." Harry told everyone about the Death Eater trials he had seen and how the older
Dumbledore had come to take him back out of the pensieve. "I was, of course, really
embarrassed. I had been snooping and everything. But he didn't seem to mind, really. And he
explained what a pensieve was and how he used them to kind of see things differently."
"So the liquid floating around in the bowl was memories?"
"Yeah. Or thoughts. I think more like thoughts, in that case. Because he said he can remove his
thoughts if he gets too many of them or they become too intense. And then he showed me how he
took his thoughts out of his head. That was strange. Let me tell you. If you do decide to do this,
close your eyes."
"What is it like?" Cassie gripped George's hand tightly. "Because a memory, or a thought, so to
speak, doesn't have any real substance. You do know that, right?" No one answered her except Harry.
"It looked like a silvery hair, almost. In fact, at first I thought it was one of Dumbledore's hairs
stuck on the end of his wand. But then he put it in the bowl with the others."
"Does it hurt to take one out?"
"Uh, I don't know. Dumbledore didn't wince or anything."
"Yeah, but that was Dumbledore." Fred and George said together and Ginny smiled and the mood
in the room lightened considerably.
"But . . ." Harry stared at the wall for a long minute, "I think you can actually completely remove
memories, too. So they're not in your brain at all anymore. Snape tried to hide a memory from me,
well, probably more than one, really, although I only know of one. It didn't work . . . which
shouldn't really surprise me, because nothing between he and I has ever worked. And, of course . .
."
"Harry." Ginny's voice was gentle. "You're rambling."
"Oh, sorry." Harry bit his lip. "When he was teaching me Occlumency. He was afraid I would see
into his brain, see things that would embarrass him. It had already happened once, you see, and I
saw one of his childhood memories and he was mad, really mad." Harry seemed to notice that he
was rambling again. "Sorry. Anyway, so he tried to take memories out and I found the pensieve
and I went inside it, and saw my dad, and Sirius, and Remus and Peter and they were all
tormenting him. It was . . . pretty bad. I saw my mum, too. She hated my dad, at first. He was a
bit of a prat when he was younger. " Harry's voice died and everyone was staring at him.
"You went into one of Snape's memories?" Ron asked incredulously. "No wonder he hates you."
"He always hated me. I remind him too much of my dad."
"Would that be when he stopped teaching you occlumency for good then, Harry?" Hermione
asked, rather archly, as she started flipping through yet another thick book. "'Cause I'm not sure
I'd blame him."
"Thanks, Hermione. Yes, to answer your question." He looked around at the people on the beds.
"Those were the two times I was in one. It's odd. You can walk around, leave the person whose
memory it is, and see what's around them." He took Ginny's hand. "I saw a pensieve used one
more time. It was different, though. This time I didn't go inside. I'm pretty sure this last way of
using it is the way Dumbledore wants to use it with you, Cassie." Harry took a deep breath. "He
used it to show me the prophecy." George and Fred nodded.
"What prophecy?" Ron asked, looked between Harry and the twins in confusion.
"The prophecy that got smashed," Harry explained. Cassie already knew about the prophecy, and
it was obvious George and Fred did, probably because of their being old enough to be in the
Order. Ginny patted Harry's hand in a comforting way that told Cassie he had already told her
some of it, if not all. "That ball that got smashed that night was just a record of a prophecy. But
someone made the prophecy, and someone heard it. And the person that heard it was Dumbledore
himself. So, he showed me the prophecy again." Harry explained briefly about the prophecy, but
that was not the point of this discussion, so he promised to talk more to Ron and Hermione about
it later and moved on to Dumbledore's using the pensieve to show him what had happened. "I
suppose that he may actually want to go into your memory, walk into the room, look around and
see what happened in a way that you couldn't."
"Could he do that?"
"To the best of my understanding, yes. I know that I heard conversations between my dad, Sirius,
and Remus that Snape never heard when I was in his memory. That's what I was trying to tell
you. It's not just a record of his memory. It's like it transports you into that time for a while and
you can see and hear everything, not just a narrow bit of it." Cassie scowled.
"That is some completely impossible. I mean, even if I were to accept all of this, which I'm not
saying I do, but what you are saying now . . . It just couldn't happen. If there was never a record
of those things . . . then how could you or anyone else ever see it years later?"
"I don't know. I . . . never understood that part about the pensieve. The only think I can think of
is that maybe . . . maybe the subconscious sees more than the aware mind knows, so maybe it's all
there on some level or another." Hermione spoke up.
"That makes sense. 'Cause Cassie's completely right, of course."
"Anyway, he may want to do that. But, he said something about witnesses, so I think it's probably
more like he'll pull your memory out and let everyone look at it. Sort of like a 3-D movie. Or at
least that's how it looked to me." Cassie shuddered and leaned back against George.
"Well, all of this sounds pretty interesting. But why does it make Muggles mad to have this done?
If it doesn't hurt and you're just seeing your own memories . . . why would that drive you insane?"
No one could really answer her. They all looked back at Hermione, who was skimming frantically
down a page, flipping to the next one, and then skimming quickly down it.
"I found it! It's here." She looked over the page again. "This is an incredibly complex potion. The
trickiest one I've ever seen." Cassie saw Ron and Harry exchange a look of amusement at that,
but didn't understand it.
"I can't believe it. That took forever. But here it is." She stood up, dusted off her clothes, and
carried the book over to the little group. "Recordatiunio potion. That means 'memory protector.'
It's got an interesting history. It was originally designed to help wizards who wanted to-"
"Hermione. Just cut to the chase."
"All right. It's used now primarily to help Muggles, but . . . not for using pensieves. It's sort of
more of a fix-it solution if they go nuts after having their memories modified."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah. Some have to have quite a bit modified, you know, and, uh, according to this, occasionally
one will have a problem with it and not really get back in touch with reality. This can help them
protect their remaining memories."
"That doesn't really sound like Cassie's situation."
"Maybe he changed it or something."
Harry snorted. "Or maybe it was the closest he could find."
"That gives me a lot of confidence."
"I'm just saying. . . ."
"Dumbledore mentioned some sort of physical side effects. Does it mention those in the book?"
Hermione flipped over the page and read quickly through it. Cassie could see her eyes darting
back and forth over the words. "Okay, it says here that it makes almost everyone who takes it
really nauseated. But that's probably just because of the ingredients. And I guess that passes pretty
quickly. Well, after you actually puke. Then you get a really bad headache. I guess that's the worst
thing. It says here that can last for a day or so. But, other than that . . .uh, yeah. That's it."
Cassie glanced at the Head Girl, who shut the book promptly and stood up, carried it over to her
trunk, and put it inside. "Hermione . . . what else? I want to know."
"It, uh, well, it's nothing, really."
"Hermione."
"Okay. It also can be a hallucinogen." Cassie's eyebrows raised.
"You mean, I could get high from it?"
"That's not likely. It's really rare." George shook his head.
"Another good reason why you shouldn't do this."
"Thanks, George. I'll certainly consider your opinion." Cassie tightened her hand in his and sighed
as she leaned back again against his shoulder. Why did everything always have to be so
complicated?
They talked for about another 30 minutes, but they never really came to any grand epiphanies.
Cassie still wasn't sure what to do. George still thought that she shouldn't do it. Hermione thought
she should. Harry just scowled at everyone and Cassie couldn't really tell what his opinion was. In
bed that night after the boys had left, Cassie tossed and turned, trying to decide what to do. By
the time she had fallen into a restless sleep, she decided that she would consider all the options the
next day before making up her mind. Maybe a pro or con list. That had always worked for her in
the past when she had to make a difficult decision.
Despite Cassie's gloomy mood, the next morning dawned bright and sunny and as she sat down to
breakfast, Molly even surprised her by opening one of the windows to let in the fresh air. It was
cold out, but not so cold that it chilled the air in the overheated room. Cassie sat down at the table
and was surprised when Charlie sat down next to her. "Sorry I missed the excitement last night.
Mum tells me that Dumbledore dropped a rather big bombshell on you."
"Yeah. I . . . I can't make up my mind whether to do that or not. Do you know anything about
Muggles and pensieves and things like that?" Charlie shook his head.
"I have heard of the potion. I've actually used it a few times. It's one of the hazards working with
dragons. When Muggles see them, they're a bit hard to explain away. So . . ."
"What are dragons really like?" Cassie wanted to change the subject because she didn't want to
think about Charlie modifying memories and making innocent Romanians insane. She liked
Charlie. He obliged her by starting to talk about his work with the dragons, telling a few funny
anecdotes to keep her mind off her troubles. Cassie was just finishing her pancake when Harry
walked into the room and stopped in the doorway, looking around at the assembled group with a
rather bemused expression on his face.
Charlie noticed and broke off his story to watch the dark-haired boy settle into the seat next to
Ginny. "What's up, Harry?"
"I just had a total . . .deja vu, I guess."
"What do you mean, Harry?" asked Ron. Or at least that's what Cassie thought he said. It was
sort of hard to understand around his mouthful of pancake.
"I had a dream about this. Before. When I was in London last summer."
"You dreamed about eating breakfast in the Burrow?" asked Ginny, smiling as she handed him the
plate of bacon.
"No. I dreamed this scene. Just like this. With everyone sitting in this position. And the sun. And
then Hedwig . . ." Just then, his white owl flew in through the window and Harry laughed. "And I
thought how ridiculous that dream was because Cassie would never be here at the Burrow. I'd
forgotten about it completely until just now."
"That's spooky," said Ron (Cassie was pretty sure this time).
"Deja vu never actually happens, you know?" Hermione volunteered. "It's a trick your mind plays
on you. You said you had a dream?"
"Yeah."
"Well, then that's Trelawney's cup of tea, Divination and all that hooey. Not deja vu."
"Whatever you call it. I did have a dream. Like this." Cassie smiled at Harry.
"You never told me about it." Cassie was sure she would have remembered if he had.
"No. I . . . couldn't very well, could I? I can't imagine how I would have told you about dreaming
of you sitting with the Weasleys at their house and my pet owl and everything."
"I would have listened." Harry grinned.
"Right. Well, I didn't know that at the time, did I?" Everyone laughed at Cassie's smirk and turned
back to their breakfast. The twins left for work on time, and Remus stumbled down to breakfast a
few minutes later.
Cassie waited politely for him to finish eating and then they both waited for Tonks who had come
down right before Cassie was ready to start telling him the story. Both the older wizard and witch
listened with fascination to Cassie's story about Dumbledore's visit the night before. Both of them
looked at Cassie when she was done with concerned expressions.
"So, what are you going to do?" Remus asked.
"I don't know. Having this over seems like something I've wanted for so long that I would do
anything to get there. But I don't want to go insane, either. I mean, what would be the point of
that? Then, everyone else's problems would be over and mine would just be beginning." Tonks
laughed and Remus shot her a look. Tonks just shrugged.
"She's right, Remus. You can't argue with her logic."
"I wasn't going to. I just really don't think she's going to go mad. Dumbledore wouldn't even
suggest it if it were a possibility. I will tell you, though, Cassie, that the situation is getting fairly
desperate. If we could arrest the wizards you saw that night, it might not matter if we had all of
them or not. But, we can't, not without some evidence. And so far, the only evidence we have is
your word that they were there. And you can believe me when I tell you that's nothing."
"Yeah. I know. But how would seeing my memory fix that?"
"I don't know. We would have the whole list, but where that would get us, I couldn't really say."
"You won't be offended if I tell you this conversation has been less than enlightening?" Remus and
Tonks both shook their heads. "I still have about 24 hours. I just hope something comes along
that makes my decision easier, either yeah or nay."
As it happened, Cassie got her wish. And as is so often the case, she really regretted uttering
those words. Because at 1 p.m., the first piece of news from the outside world arrived that made
her decision much easier. "George! What are you doing here?" Molly's cry from the kitchen made
Cassie, who had been reading Hogwarts: A History in the living room jump up and run for the
connecting door.
When he saw Cassie, he put out his arm and she grabbed his hand. This could not be good. "It's
Andrew. He just came by the shop."
"He what!" both Molly and Cassie yelled simultaneously.
"Yeah. That's right. He actually came to Diagon Alley and got Tom to open the wall and he
walked down to our store. He's in trouble. Big trouble." Cassie didn't say anything then, just
stared with panicked expression at her boyfriend. "Apparently, Blackman's been trying to find
Cassie, really trying. Went to Switzerland and everything, tracked down the school. Her name
was on the records, like Dumbledore had arranged it, but when it came to actually matching a
student with the name, of course there wasn't one. So, he accused Andrew of fabricating the
whole story and demanding to know where Cassie was. He stuck with the story, said that the
people there must be confused. It is the Christmas holidays and all and once the students all get
back from vacation, it can all be sorted out, but he doesn't think Blackman is buying it." Cassie
gripped George's hand so tightly that he gasped and pulled on it. "Sorry, sweetheart. You're
hurting me."
"Where is he now? Is he still at the store?"
"No. He went back to work."
"Tell me you're kidding!"
"No. We tried to convince him to stay until we could get some help, but he refused. He said he
had already stayed too long at lunch!" Fred and I didn't know what else to do. We couldn't get all
the way to Dumbledore. So, I came here. I hoped Dad would know . . ."
"Of course, of course. That's the best thing. I'll talk to him right now."
"What about my mum and brothers?"
"He didn't think they were in danger at the moment, although he is worried about later." Molly ran
up the steps, yelling for Arthur. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm worried about my family."
"I understand. The Order will take care of them. So you don't need to worry." His hand cupped
her cheek and she leaned against it.
"I wish I had your confidence." Cassie clung to his hand. "You don't have to go back to work, do
you?"
"Yes. I better. I can't leave Fred there alone."
"But-" Cassie took a deep breath. "You're right." George pulled her close, kissed her gently, and
disapparated. A moment later Arthur ran down the stairs and disapparated also.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur for Cassie. Order members came in and out of the
house, always popping in, talking rapidly to someone, and popping back out. Ginny and Hermione
tried valiantly to keep her distracted and Cassie tried valiantly to pretend it was working. Harry
and Ron were helping the Order as best they could. Harry couldn't leave the house, though, and
Ron was sort of unofficially assigned to protect him so their duties did not actually involve them
going anywhere. When dinnertime finally arrived and Cassie realized that her dad was probably
home from work now and safe from Blackman, she felt much better. However, it was only a few
minutes after that that a new worry hit her. George and Fred weren't home yet which meant they
were late. Molly was unconcerned, more worried about Arthur and Remus, who were out and
about despite the arrest warrants still floating around with their names on them. But Cassie just
had a feeling in her gut that something was wrong.
It was almost 6 before the twins finally appeared in the kitchen and Cassie wasn't sure who
shrieked louder between her and Molly. Cassie was momentarily flummoxed. She couldn't even
tell which twin was George - the first time in months she hadn't been able to instantly determine
his identity. They were both covered from head to toe is smoke, ash, and blood. So much blood!
Cassie was tempted to faint. If either of them had bled that much, they might be dead. And since
neither of them had yet made a sound, it seemed like a definite possibility.
"It's okay, Cassie. We're both all right." That was George! And she grabbed his hand. He groaned.
"It's burned. Be careful, love!"
"What happened to the two of you?" Molly asked five minutes later, as she sponged soot and
blood off Fred's face while Cassie took care of his brother.
"Death Eaters. Came into the shop, right at closing time. Didn't seem to want to buy anything,
though." George chuckled, then gasped. "Oooh. I might have a broken rib. That smarts."
Fred groaned. "Is that all you've got? I'm sure my leg is broken and probably my hand." Cassie
had to agree with his assessment but didn't answer him. She was more anxious to find out what
had happened in the shop. She was almost positive it had something to do with her dad's visit
earlier. "Well, they did seem to want to take something home, but it wasn't a Weasley Wizard
Wheeze. It was the Weasleys themselves."
"Stop talking riddles, boys. What do you mean?" Molly scowled, maybe cleaning Fred's likely
broken hand a bit harder than necessary.
"They wanted us to come with them. And it wasn't for a fun afternoon in the park." Molly
grunted. "They wanted to hold us hostage. Get it? Us, for her."
"You mean they know she's here?" Molly stopped wiping at all and just grabbed Fred's arm hard.
He groaned.
"No. I don't think so. Not specifically. Just that the Order has her and that you're in the Order.
One of them also mentioned that if the Order didn't have her, they certainly have Harry Potter
somewhere."
"I don't know, Fred. It seems to me that they were wanting to trade the two of us for just one
other person. Does that mean we're each only worth a half a person each?"
"Maybe, George. Maybe. Oh, honestly, Mum! Let Cassie clean me up! At least she's not killing
George!" Fred scowled at his mother.
"Fine, fine. I'll get the Skele-gro. You're going to both need it! But you haven't told us how you
got away from them."
"Fireworks. Lots of fireworks!" That explained quite nicely the soot and black smoke that
covered them so completely. "We set off almost all of them in the store. They were insane in that
close of a place. They couldn't even come near us! It was like a wall of fire between us and them."
"And one set would just finish and they'd think they were done, and another would light."
"But why didn't you just leave then? Why were you hanging around the store?" Molly picked up a
black and white bottle with a big skeleton on it from a kitchen shelf.
"We couldn't leave the day's take in the till! It was thousands of Galleons! So we took turns
distracting them and cleaning out the drawer. Then we left."
"Oh, for Merlin's sake! You're both mental." As though in revenge, she doled out several
spoonfuls of what must have been foul medicine because both boys sputtered and gagged as she
forced it down their throats.
"That doesn't explain the blood, though," Cassie commented as she finished wiping George's left
arm which was almost dripping with the stuff.
"It's not ours. None of it, I don't think. We used a few banishing charms on our Skiving
Snackboxes, the nosebleed nougats made great little weapons. The idiots would be standing there
with their mouths open, amazed at our fireworks. One Skiving Snackbox banished down their
throat. Five seconds later, they're gushing blood. They can't figure out how it started or how to
stop it! They panic! It's great! I think two of them actually passed out from blood loss, it's mostly
theirs on us. And for all we know, they might be dead by now." Cassie couldn't dredge up any
sympathy in her heart for the two wizards laying on the floor of George and Fred's shop bleeding
to death. Actually, she thought it was quite a fitting end to a Death Eater. She wondered if they
were anyone she knew.
A half hour later, Arthur and Remus had returned back from doing whatever it was they were
doing, the boys had showered and changed and they were sitting down to the second round of
dinner as everyone else had eaten before the twins even got home. George had barely put his first
forkful of food into his mouth, when a sudden bright green light flooded the kitchen fireplace.
"What was that?!" asked Fred, dropping his fork and shoving away from the table.
"It's the Robinsons. They need help." Arthur stood while Cassie just stared in shock. No, not
twice in one day - three times, actually, that her loved ones had been attacked. This just could not
be happening. "Let's go, boys. Remus."
"Take Ron and Charlie and Bill!"
"All right, fine! Whatever! Let's go!" It seemed ages before the wizards disapparated. Tonks had
gone in the end as well which added another minute or so to the departure time. After all the
disapparations were done, Cassie felt her legs getting weak beneath her. She had to sit down. She
reached for one of the kitchen chairs and felt herself falling. When she opened her eyes a few
seconds later to look into the worried faces of Molly, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione, she struggled
to sit up.
"This has to end. I can't live like this anymore. I'm going in the morning. I'm going to do that
pensieve thing and I don't any of you to argue with me!" She didn't know whether they had all
come to the same conclusion or whether they just realized that there was no use trying to argue,
because there was universal silence.
"Cassie. You're undoubtedly right. It's time for this to be over." Cassie's mind was made up and
she paced back and forth on the main floor of the burrow, framing all the arguments in her mind
that she was going to use on George over and over again. It was over an hour later before the
pops from the kitchen announced the arrival of a large group of wizards. Cassie ran in and was
relieved to see everyone standing there, looking tired but well. She wasn't sure whether she was
happy or unhappy to see that her parents were not with them.
"What was going on?"
"A committee of sorts showed up at your parents' house earlier this evening. I suspect they were
Death Eaters, but we don't know for certain. They were dressed like Muggles but they certainly
were not." Arthur sighed and sat down at the table. Molly had set warming spells on the food and
those who had been trying to eat dug wearily back into their meal while Molly offered seconds to
the others.
"They at first just tried to talk to Andrew and Rebecca, asked questions about Cassie and where
she was. But when they wouldn't come up with answers that suited them, they got a bit nasty.
They finally wound up stunning all four of them and searching Cassie's room for evidence. They
found some letters we had planted earlier, some various things which made it really look like you
had been in Switzerland studying."
"But they didn't fall for it?" Arthur looked at Cassie and smiled grimly.
"They may have . . . if they hadn't found pictures in your dresser drawer of you and Harry on a
broom." Cassie's eyes widened as she realized what had happened.
"I-"
"That made them realize with a sudden jolt, I am sure, that you're a witch. Well, they think you're
a witch." Cassie buried her face in her hands. "They were in the process of questioning your father
a bit more about your whereabouts when we arrived. Unfortunately, they all got away. Your
parents provided pretty good descriptions, but there's not much we can do about it. They took the
pictures with them, so basically your cover is blown, I'm afraid."
"What about my parents? Did you just leave them there?"
"Oh, no. Not at all." Arthur tried to smile, but Cassie saw that it didn't reach his eyes. "We've
moved them to a more secure location for the moment. That's what took so long. We had to get
them settled in."
"Where are they?"
Arthur flushed a dull red. "Um, well. We'd rather you not know, actually." Cassie stared at her
parents' friend in shock.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, what you don't know can't be . . .accidentally revealed." Arthur looked down at his empty
plate and looked vaguely surprised to see that the food was gone. He shook his head and then
continued. "It's not that we don't trust you . . . it's just that people make mistakes, say things they
don't mean to. Especially as tomorrow you may find yourself under the influence of a very
powerful potion, with your memories removed and everything."
"There's no may to worry about. I'm doing it." George shook his head but Cassie ignored him. "I
want this over with. I want my life to go back to normal. I want this done. There's just too much
danger in not knowing who these wizards are and what they want. I trust Dumbledore. If he says
I can use that pensieve, then I believe I can use it and it will be useful. So, tomorrow morning, I'll
go to Hogwarts, I'll take the potion, and I'll let Dumbledore do whatever he wants to do with my
memory of that night. And that's the end of the discussion." She lifted her chin and looked around
at the assembled group. George just sighed and tightened his grip on her hand.
"I knew you would, Cassie. I knew it before he even told you that you had a day or so to think
about it. And now I think you're right. It's time for this to end."
